The American Prospect's Terence Samuel has an interesting perspective on the Democratic Party. Granted, it's something that Republicans have long known. Here's specifically what I'm talking about:
As much as Democrats love their two candidates, the really animating issue is getting rid of Bush, and they are completely open on how, and evenly divided on with whom. Without Bush-loathing as the organizing principle of their unity, Democrats could find themselves on shaky ground: the party's old personality disorders may begin to resurface. The old identity crises have already begun to show themselves.Republicans have known for almost 7 years that Democrats' election motivation is based primarily on BDS. When Howard Dean said that "This is a battle between good and evil and we're the good", that statement was directed at President Bush.
Democrats face other daunting problems. righht now, independents don't like President Bush these days. The thing is that that problem disappears the minute John McCain accepts the GOP nomination. Another thing that's bound to factor into this is that Democratic activists are driven by their BDS much like they were driven by their hatred of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay. How do these activists stay motivated when Bush isn't there to motivate them?
The biggest dilemma facing them, as Samuel points out, is that the Left's BDS affliction has masked a number of divisions within the party. Here's how Samuel frames it:
The fight over NAFTA is one such schism. Is this the progressive party that embraces the reality of globalization, or the neo-protectionist party that seeks to shelter American workers from the ravages of the global economy? The Prospect's Robert Kuttner and former Clinton administration adviser Robert Rubin disagree for a reason.This really is the fight for control between the Deaniac wing of the party and the DLC wing. It's essentially a fight between the protectionists and the globalists.
Once President Bush moves into the rearview mirror, the self-examination within the Democratic Party will take on a life of its own. When their nominee makes a mistake, will the activists start questioning their candidate? If they do, how will that affect turnout drives?
With the race getting nastier and the elbows getting sharper, there's plenty of reason to believe that this will hurt party unity in September moving forward. If the fight happens in the fall, it'll just make the Democrats' chances of winning the White House that much more difficult.
