As Markos so wisely points out, the Republican party is falling apart. It's finally been taking over by the Theo-cons, and the remaining factions are now seemingly running in fear from the monster they created. So this begs the question...what are our factions?
Howard Dean made a stop in Memphis during the HFjr campaign in 2006 and made an interesting observation. "The only 'majority' in the Democratic Party is women." That means we're just as much a motley crew as the GOP, but for the last 7 years that hasn't mattered. The one true majority we've had has been "we're NOT the GOP."
Going forward that's not going to be good enough. At some point we're going to have to identify our various components, figure out what each of us wants, and work toward finding that common ground that will keep us together. Otherwise we're just today's GOP minus 10 years.
So I'm curious to know, what do you think our factions are in the Democratic party? I wouldn't have thoght our differences were all that great...but then primary season came along and I've noticed how we've all ... well, let's charitably say that we've sort of formed our opinions about our chosen candidate.
I think it is in this choosing that we might find the first signs of our various factions. John Edwards supporters, for example, seem to find resonance with his populist message. Obama supporters seem drawn to his "not politics as usual" approach. And Hillary supporters...well, they're hard to come by on this website, but in general I find the Hillary supporters to be the most nostalgic for the Clinton presidency.
What does this tell us about our own party? And what problems might this cause when we no longer have the 800lb gorilla of Republican incompetence to unite us?