benjaminstudebaker.com/…
After the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, both parties changed their primary systems to reduce the influence of party insiders. The Democrats gave their insiders–the superdelegates–1/6th of the vote, leaving the rest to primary voters. The Republicans went further and gave the primary voters full control.
over time the Republican Party has nominated increasingly hard right individuals who run more on their charisma with the party base than on any serious managerial competence. Those who deviate from this tend to lose in primaries or to fail to turnout the Republican base in generals.
despite this, the biggest failure in this period belongs to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has failed, over and over again, to produce a realignment which would force the Republican Party to change direction. In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt responded to a crisis with bold, creative policies that delivered massive, tangible benefits to poor and working people. Because FDR did these things, the Republicans were forced to go in his direction to stay politically competitive.
When it wins office, it acts as a caretaker, stalling for time until the next Republican wins and makes a pig’s breakfast out of the whole thing.
They throw out would-be centrist compromisers, some charismatic (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama), some not (Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore). But the deals these people cut with Republicans are never very good for workers.
This has to stop, but it won’t stop if the Democrats once again focus on unity to win as many seats as possible in 2018. If the Democrats win in 2020 with another charismatic centrist who fails to produce a realignment and force the Republicans to compete politically on our terms, we are likely to see another Republican president in 2024 or 2028. That Republican president will likely be even further right than Trump and could be significantly more dangerous to us.