Reply #192: Well, then, shame on them/us. But, I'm not sure that's it. Or the whole story. [View All]

Think of the police shooting those who struck against Rockefeller (J.D., that is). Democrats were at their best when the opposition had all the money and power.

Maybe it was losing the Solid South to the Republicans. When you had the whole South, plus most of the rest of the East in your pocket reliably, election after election, you could afford to be a "real" Democrat. Then we because of reproductive choice, churchgoers, minorities or not; and minorities had been another 100% reliable bloc, at least African Americans and Puerto Rican Americans, maybe Mexican Americans, too, after RFK, anyway.

There was also a time when all ethnics--Jews, Italians, Irish, whatever, voted Democratic. Almost without exception, Republicans were the party of the rich WASP's with no conscience. So, they got the South (IMO, because of the Civil Rights Act), and they chipped away at the rest of our constituencies. or maybe, as they got more affluent, thanks to their parents' unions and Democratic votes enabling them to graduate high school and beyond, they became "tax bracket Republicans.

And we did not wake up soon enough, And now, our base is not enough. We have to hope and pray to make some independents blue instead of red.

Or maybe, as my mother in law would say, "It's just a combination of everything,"