Do you really think there are enough adults in the democrat party to actually take it back from the radical pelosi, kerry, moore liberal left? I just don't see how the democrat party can ever be taken serious again, unless there is a split, and the democrat party is all the adults, and the split off new party is some liberal pink party.
Adult Dems I know do not think there's a problem. When confronted with a Cindy Sheehan or Howard Dean, they tune out or say there's extremists on both sides. I honestly don't think they see what's happened to their party, they are blinded by hatred for Bush and will tolerate anybody as long as they harbor the same hatred.
My feeling is we'll see a true crackup when they realize they have to run against someone who's NOT BUSH.
Most of the sensible ones have either become Republicans, or served out their terms. I read that there are grass roots efforts by pro-life Dems to try to influence the party. I pray they are successful. We need two parties who have the best interests of the country at heart, and the debate should be about how to best accomplish that. Right now the battle is to stave off an absolute Marxist takeover of the government.
If this country is divide, as the Nov 2004 election showed, 51-49 and the split is merely between Repbs and the Moveon.org crowd we are in VERY serious trouble. There are a lot of adult Dems. Same way their are a lot of adult Conservative who do not buy into some of the Tin Foil Hat rants posted here. Same way Freepers are but are but an activist segment of a larger movement, so too are the Leftist Bloggers, Activists and Pundits that do so much to color everyone perception of the Dems.
If we work from the Hegel theory of Theisis/Antithesis/Synthesis, it would appear the Center Right of the Dems and the Center Left of the Repbs will eventually join as a majority party with the far left and far right lopped off into splitter factions. Bush and Sen McMedia (McCain) may be the outriders of that trend.
I would rather not see that happen since I firmly believe in the Antithesis (Conservative) vision of maximum freedom possible for the maximum number of people with the minimum of Govt. The Synthesis of the two parties would be a sort stagnate, aggressively secular Govt neo-Socialist nanny state. It would combine all the worst elements of both current parties. It would not be a system I would care to live under.
It the Thesis (Dems) collapse, there will be nothing to keep the Conservative Antithesis from fracturing. I think part of the problem we see right now is the Conservatives, having no serious foes to fight, are turning on each other. The centrifugal force of opposing the Dems(thesis) is weakened so much that the anti-theisis is now on the verge of fracturing. That will not happen RIGHT now but it will happen unless the Dems can get back to being a serious political threat in an election cycle or two. Power corrupts, even when those in power are people doing things I like.