Maybe it's just me...
But if the majority defines the whole, then it's those who believe in representative accountability, regulation of big business, aggressive reduction of poverty, universal healthcare, and radical reappropriation of national resources w/r/t combating fundamentalist religiosity (amongst many other issues) who are the Democrats in name only.
Because quite clearly, the Democrats with the actual Name no longer fight for any of these things. If you, on the other hand, do, you're almost certainly in the wrong party, and throwing good money/language after bad.
Modern, secular, left-leaning, European/Scandinavian-style humanists have very few reasons-- outside of a vulgar survivalist pragmatism-- to vote for the Democratic party. This has been true for quite some time, and every day this past week it's become a little clearer why.
I remember that book, What's The Matter With Kansas?, which, along with Lakoff's thing, was much chittered and sang about. Back in those days the whole Academy was churning, feeling relevant for a change, loaded with new language and feeling like they'd cracked some modern midwest ENIGMA and could adjust their attack accordingly, win one for once in a fight that actually mattered.
In the thick of it, though, as we sketched and defined the gaps between the actual interests and the actual behaviors of GOP voters, giddy with insight, we failed to turn that same critical eye upon ourselves. We pretended that the Democratic party was still the party of FDR, which it emphatically was not, nor had been for quite some time.
We lost site of our principles, got conned into serving politicians who stroked our intellects and heaped praises upon our cute (and lucrative) grassroots productions.
We got fooled, as it were, again. Like any baffled mark, we gloried in the attention of the slick hustler. We wanted to make them happy, because they made us feel cool. Principles became important inasmuch as they functioned to create spooky and ineffable 'frames', 'memes', and 'narratives' that were more conducive to achieving victory...no, not to achieving victory. Rather, to winning and to winning alone.
Well, this is what we get and it's precisely what we deserve. Not so much though for the kids in Iraq.
Democrats, in name, believe in Big Business. All else follows. What do you believe in? Who's been saying it all along?
It's funny how sometimes that answer will surprise you.