Disarray inside the Democratic Party looks rather tame and sane compared with the GOP’s. And yet. And yet what? And yet why is there any at all? Let’s look at the situation.

The Democrats control … what? The White House? No. The Senate? No. The House? No. The Supreme Court? No. Lower courts? No. Governorships? No. State legislatures? No. No, they don’t control anything, and they all recognize the current Republican governance to be an unacceptable threat to the nation, possibly an existential one.

AD

AD

If there was ever a time to put aside internal differences and assemble a united front against Trump and the mayhem and destruction that roils around and below him, that would be right now. And yet the Democrats seem to prefer to fuss and pick at their scabs.

What exactly IS the fight inside the Democratic Party anyway? The so-called establishment proposes liberal solutions via conservative mechanisms (markets, complicated apparatuses). The so-called insurgent Democrats propose liberal ends through liberal mechanisms (government). So this is an unbridgeable gap? Really? Sometimes establishment Democrats appear to regard the liberal-agenda-by-liberal-means to be a bigger threat to the nation than all the Trumps and Bannons and nativists and white supremacists put together. And have tended to act that way. We see clearly enough now where that has got us.

A Democratic Party split, under the circumstances, is an indulgence that neither the party nor the nation can afford right now.