OPINION — “Democrats in disarray” is one of those alliterative phrases beloved by pundits and political reporters. Database searches can trace it back to the Eisenhower administration, and the expression came into its own during the period when the Vietnam War upended politics.

At the end of the first year of Richard Nixon’s presidency, New York Times columnist James Reston (under a headline that you can easily guess) wrote, “It is not only power that corrupts but sometimes the absence of power, and the Democrats are following the familiar pattern. They are complaining about the failure of Republican leadership and providing very little of their own.”

It seems inevitable that this story line would reemerge now that we are in political limbo, with most congressional primaries over and the fall campaigns yet to begin. So an emblematic story led Sunday’s New York Times under the print headline, “Democrats Brace as Storm Brews Far to Their Left.”

The themes of the Times story and dozens like it are familiar. They all highlight young activists such as 28-year-old giant slayer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who upended potential Nancy Pelosi successor Joe Crowley in the New York primary. Risky issues are highlighted as main stream Democrats recoil from demands for single-payer health insurance and the abolition of ICE (the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

Meanwhile, a moderate Democratic group, the Third Way, hosted an invitation-only conference in Columbus, Ohio, to counter the ideological influence of Bernie Sanders and his ardent supporters. Referring to what she called a Midwestern “silent majority,” Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos said, “There’s a lot of people that just don’t really like protests and don’t like yelling and screaming.”