General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The "extreme left" didn't give us Trump. The path to hell was paved by [View all]Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)I think the Democratic leadership is in no small part responsible for the situation in which we presently find ourselves, but I think those items you listed are small potatoes, relatively speaking.
The party's biggest failing has been its move to a center/center-right economic platform. Richard Rorty predicted back in 1988 that the Democrats' embrace of third-way economics would leave blue collar whites feeling underrepresented, and these feelings, compounded by middle-class whites' precarious hold on their own jobs and resultant steadfast refusal to back social safety net programs, in search of a "strongman" to turn things around.
While I think Rorty's characterization of "cultural liberals" is unduly harsh, I think his criticisms of how the Democrats have handled economics are fairly on-point.