It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the left’s establishment talking heads and their allies in the media mostly shied away from covering what could be described as a near political blood bath during last weekend’s vote to elect the new chairman of the California Democratic Party. Plagued by acrimony and disharmony, the chairman’s race was decided by a mere 62-vote margin out of nearly 3,000 votes cast. To any observer, these results should suggest trouble for the Democratic Party. Democrats should be unifying ahead of the midterm elections that are less than 18 months away. But so far, party unity remains a mirage.

Rather than recognize the fault lines that are aggressively pitting the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party against the Democrats’ more liberal and rebellious Sanders wing, the left has chosen to harp on Republicans and obsess about President Trump rather than put their own house in order and create an affirmative agenda for the country. As Republicans know all too well, counting on one’s opponents to unify the party has its limits. Still, the Democrats have the media on their side, and that is a powerful advantage.

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Following the House GOP’s vote on health care weeks ago, the mainstream media pounced on any opportunity to shine a bright light on the occasionally distraught constituent and ensure that anti-Republican town-hall soliloquies went viral. But when Democrats are shouting at each other hysterically as they did last weekend in Sacramento, the media was largely silent.

Anyway, Republicans have yet to arrive at that level of hysteria, but we have been forced to deal with the rise of a more belligerent, unorthodox branch of the party in our past. When the wave of tea party candidates rushed through a few election cycles ago, they secured several seats in the House but were unable to do the same in the Senate. Sure, tea party Republicans made their way through a few primaries, but when it came to the general election, they were mostly unelectable. The fact is, we would have two or three more Republicans in the Senate had it not been for tea party activists who mirror the Bernie Sandernistas in a lot of ways.

So, what does all of this mean for Republicans today – particularly those in California? I can’t say for sure, but Republicans ought to take note of the schism in today’s Democratic Party. Amid intra-party shouting and frenzy, the Democrats are losing hold of ground that has mostly been theirs for the taking. I don’t want to suggest that anything will happen quickly for Republicans in California, but the fact that Democrats are fighting among themselves, have no agenda and are suffering from the lowest recorded level of April fundraising since 2009 makes the opening for Republicans that much noticeable.

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