I remember when people were asking that question in 2008. We'll only know with hindsight.

The Seventh Party System is gonna be wild. And, by wild, I mean stupid and not that different.

Could totally be the beginning of the end, but I think it's too early to tell. The Democratic infighting just concerns Biden, which will probably just resolve itself.

Yeah, I think it broke.

Remember that Trump's election also broke the Republican party. They had a long stretch where they couldn't get their people into office because they weren't sufficiently frothing Q-anon weirdos. Now they have Project 2025 - a completely separate entity from the party - trying to market a policy package to its constituents and elected officials because they have millenarian religious beliefs in the place where policy usually goes. That's not a stable organizational system.

Meanwhile, the things the DNC claims to stand for are popular, and most people are still willing to believe in it without results, yet despite this incredible position, they can't put out compelling enough candidates to get people to vote. I think it's easiest to see how broken they are by imagining a DNC that functions properly. They'd find generically likeable junior politicians that are willing to follow the party line, get them featured on the national news, use national support to let them easily win senate positions, and then have a steady drip of palatable candidates who can run Hope And Change campaigns and then enact the policies the donors want. Every primary would offer you a sampling of different flavored Beto O'Rourkes. This is piss-easy and they can't do it, because the party is actually a collection of powerful families trying to play kingmaker to fan their egos, and they've spent so little effort on talent development that people are talking about Michelle Obama as a candidate. And that lack of stewardship also means a total power vacuum when the Clintons and Obamas and whatnot get too old and retire or die, if the party doesn't fall apart first.

End of the beginning or beginning of the end rather than the end itself imo. Most of the voting demographics of the 1980s are the same as today (Black people and queer people vote Democrat while Evangelicals and white people vote Republican). The urban vs rural divide was less intense during the 80s but it was still pretty applicable. Small town in the middle of nowhere voted Republican in the 80s and votes Republican today. The only thing different I could think of is blue-collar union workers are shifting away from Democrats and towards Republicans, which is a pretty significant shift.

Well put, we can’t divine the future but your correct in feeling like these are weeks where decades happen.

If we’re optimism posting I hope this is the death knell of the Democratic Party and perhaps in my lifetime even the constitutional order. The Republican Party is similarly vile but one crucial distinction is that I don’t think the Republican Party would go out of its way to save the Democratic Party. But if you reverse the circumstances I can absolutely see the democrats fighting tooth and nail to save the republicans from self destruction. Look at the way they elevated the “never trump republicans” even though they were just as vile or worse in some cases. The democrats really do seem to be on a collision course with a deeply delegitimizing defeat and Joe Biden refuses to take his hands off the steering wheel even as their self preservation instincts keep trying to turn the nose up.

Of course like I said, we can’t divine the future, this is just game theory bullshit. All I’m saying is that as someone who dreams of seeing the constitutional order of the United States brought to an end, I feel a glimmer of that most dangerous of feelings.

And of course the chaos that ensues will not be pretty. I do not relish that and no one should. However the time to work together to build a credible alternative has always been yesterday.

And to that end, I often wonder how much of a credible alternative CAN even be built as long as the gaping maw of the Democratic Party exists to Hoover up all social movements, capitalize on them, and smooth off all the sharp edges so they’re palatable to suburban fence sitting white people.

Even within the existing constitutional order, I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that the left as a social movement will continue to be stymied and sapped of talent and capital until the Democratic Party either implodes or is just completely de-legitimized.

This Bluesky post made me laugh.

Hi. I'm George Clooney. You may know me from the movies and TV and for being good looking. It also explains why the NYT thinks my opinion on who should run the country matters even though no normal Americans can relate to my daily life in any way.

https://subium.com/profile/coachfinstock.bsky.social/post/3kwxakhrsew2i

The libs are insane with anger at the NYT. I can't believe they are also mad at George Clooney. Haha.

I'm curious what this shit looked like when they ran Dukakis. Or Mondale.

If Biden drops and it turns into a last-minute primary free-for-all, then it will be time to bust out the McGovern analogies.

Edit: And I guess Mondale never really stood a chance against , but Bush Sr. was not that popular -- Dukakis should have had a fighting chance, at least up until he put on that damn helmet.