Good article, well thought out, thanks.
The more polarized a party’s base gets the more radical the candidates and what follows is more polarization. We need a centrist as leader badly, but they would have to lie to (successfully fool) their base to get elected. This is why extemes look like the only option. Obama looked like positive change, what happened was a slow recovery, American appolgist foreign policy, destruction of the middle class, corporations parking their jobs overseas, non enforced immigration laws, and a slide towards socialism.
In this election, Sanders and Trump were the change candidates. Given those choices, I believe Sanders might have won. But, the democrat leaders manipulated the outcome for Clinton. What exposed this was the wiki leak emails, the same ones that were supposedly leaked by Russian hackers, although Assange denies this. More than anything this is why democrats need to rebuild their party. But what it looks like is happening, is the democratic party is polarizing itself even more by electing a DNC chairman with ties to Farrakhan, pushing the left to even greater polarization. Not sure if this is the way to go. As an independent you certainly have lost me on this one.
Remember its not the party extreme base that ultimately elects the President. It is the independent voter that voted for Obama and then switched to Trump that made the difference. It is always the Independent minded voter that ultimately makes the difference. And what independent voters have wanted is change. You may despise Trump but he was the only anti establishment change candidate left standing.
The Democrats ignored the working class middle Americans, well worse yet, just dumped them for what they thought would win the election hands down, the urban mixed population of minorities and liberals, and in a sense this worked as Hilary won the popular vote. However Trump unveiled a smarter strategy by listening to middle America and those disposessed and outed by the Democrats and won the electoral vote.
So, I would say all the Democrats need to do is to put up a candidate that is not just a centrist but a centrist visionary. Someone who can create a vision for all Americans and grab the independent vote. This however is unlikely to happen as the current narrative is one of extremes. The party’s base Rep and Dem are too extreme. Both leading to ugly name calling rants and personality attacks that pass as debate and discussion.
Right now the way we are forced to govern and maintain any balance is to elect extreme candidates as the electorate swings back and forth every 8 years. Liberal democrat, conservative Republican. Its too bad because a centrist visionary would be great but probably, as you say, be ineffective because of the existing polarization and oppostion.
Perhaps, at some point, this very situation will make the time right for a third party to be a viable option.
