Is the Democratic establishment capable of reform?

[Cashew]

I say no. Unlike the republican establishment, which cowers in fear of their base, The democratic establishment simply looks down on progressives as embarrassments. I wouldn't be surprised if their autopsy report said that they need to move further to the center... in all the wrong ways, and end up trying to ram though an elitist like Cuomo, or even Bloomberg in 2020.

Again I would like to be proven wrong, but the democratic base just does not appear to have the temperament needed to force change in party leadership.

[Bigby]

I say no. Unlike the republican establishment, which cowers in fear of their base, The democratic establishment simply looks down on progressives as embarrassments. I wouldn't be surprised if their autopsy report said that they need to move further to the center... in all the wrong ways, and end up trying to ram though an elitist like Cuomo, or even Bloomberg in 2020.

Again I would like to be proven wrong, but the democratic base just does not appear to have the temperament needed to force change in party leadership.

Both parties' Establishments seem to have made that their collective broken record.

[Suburbia]

I say no. Unlike the republican establishment, which cowers in fear of their base, The democratic establishment simply looks down on progressives as embarrassments. I wouldn't be surprised if their autopsy report said that they need to move further to the center... in all the wrong ways, and end up trying to ram though an elitist like Cuomo, or even Bloomberg in 2020.

Again I would like to be proven wrong, but the democratic base just does not appear to have the temperament needed to force change in party leadership.

Somewhat. Centrism has it's pros and cons. The Democratic Party cannot go communistic. It has to be populist, but appealing to everyone. Cuomo is a little tainted and corrupt, but good on some issues. He got reelected. He knows what he's doing. Bloomberg will go back to the business world and is a centrist. Centrism is not evil.

[JA]

"Move to the center!" They proclaimed in the wake of the Reagan Revolution with the New Democrats. "Abandon economic populism and you'll win!" Well, we've given their neoliberal/third way politics a try all across the Western world (UK, France, US, Germany, Australia, and so on). What has it gotten us? Record income inequality, a populist revolt, associations with elitism, and continuous electoral defeats at every level of government. Not just here, but look at how weak the traditional center-left parties are in Britain, Germany, France, Holland, Austria, et al. The center-left failed to sufficiently fight the trickle down economics and austerity policies of the right-wing and now we all have a populist-nationalist backlash to deal with. Hint hint: they aren't just siphoning the votes of racists and losers, but our countries forgotten working classes.

[Person Man]

It did before, else the party will go the way of the whigs and a Populist or Labor Party or the American Alternative will replace them after 12 years of TP domination.

[RaphaelDLG]

If the Democratic party leadership is smart/not captured by bad incentives, it will move to the center on social issues and move to the left on economic issues...

but it is both dumb and captured by a system of bad incentives, so it will continue it's moronic strategy of identity politics and economic triangulation that will at best win a narrow Presidential election victory but not Congress and not the state houses.

[Cashew]

I say no. Unlike the republican establishment, which cowers in fear of their base, The democratic establishment simply looks down on progressives as embarrassments. I wouldn't be surprised if their autopsy report said that they need to move further to the center... in all the wrong ways, and end up trying to ram though an elitist like Cuomo, or even Bloomberg in 2020.

Again I would like to be proven wrong, but the democratic base just does not appear to have the temperament needed to force change in party leadership.

Somewhat. Centrism has it's pros and cons. The Democratic Party cannot go communistic. It has to be populist, but appealing to everyone. Cuomo is a little tainted and corrupt, but good on some issues. He got reelected. He knows what he's doing. Bloomberg will go back to the business world and is a centrist. Centrism is not evil.

The problem is that the definition of centrism has been perverted to mean support for globalism. What democrats need are a mix of real centrists like John Bel Edwards, and more populists like Tulsi Gabbard.

[Person Man]

If the Democratic party leadership is smart/not captured by bad incentives, it will move to the center on social issues and move to the left on economic issues...

but it is both dumb and captured by a system of bad incentives, so it will continue it's moronic strategy of identity politics and economic triangulation that will at best win a narrow Presidential election victory but not Congress and not the state houses.

what does social issue triangulation look like? We pretty much have to still show contrast on this issue.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

They didn't learn a damn thing from 2014.

[The Ex-Factor]

If the Democratic party leadership is smart/not captured by bad incentives, it will move to the center on social issues and move to the left on economic issues...

but it is both dumb and captured by a system of bad incentives, so it will continue it's moronic strategy of identity politics and economic triangulation that will at best win a narrow Presidential election victory but not Congress and not the state houses.

what does social issue triangulation look like? We pretty much have to still show contrast on this issue.

Probably some Kander/Manchin/Schweitzer type. However such a person is Kasich or Huntsman esque in that they are unlikely to get through the primaries.

[Kleine Scheiße]

"Move to the center!" They proclaimed in the wake of the Reagan Revolution with the New Democrats. "Abandon economic populism and you'll win!" Well, we've given their neoliberal/third way politics a try all across the Western world (UK, France, US, Germany, Australia, and so on). What has it gotten us? Record income inequality, a populist revolt, associations with elitism, and continuous electoral defeats at every level of government. Not just here, but look at how weak the traditional center-left parties are in Britain, Germany, France, Holland, Austria, et al. The center-left failed to sufficiently fight the trickle down economics and austerity policies of the right-wing and now we all have a populist-nationalist backlash to deal with. Hint hint: they aren't just siphoning the votes of racists and losers, but our countries forgotten working classes.

[publicunofficial]

"Move to the center!" They proclaimed in the wake of the Reagan Revolution with the New Democrats. "Abandon economic populism and you'll win!" Well, we've given their neoliberal/third way politics a try all across the Western world (UK, France, US, Germany, Australia, and so on). What has it gotten us? Record income inequality, a populist revolt, associations with elitism, and continuous electoral defeats at every level of government. Not just here, but look at how weak the traditional center-left parties are in Britain, Germany, France, Holland, Austria, et al. The center-left failed to sufficiently fight the trickle down economics and austerity policies of the right-wing and now we all have a populist-nationalist backlash to deal with. Hint hint: they aren't just siphoning the votes of racists and losers, but our countries forgotten working classes.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Before Reaganism the country too was a disaster, stagflation for over a decade with each year getting worse and worse( and by 1980 the country had double digit unemployment, double digit inflation , 25% interest rates). I take the 2010s over the 1970s any day

[Xing]

Define capable. I don't think they ever would, since the current party leaders seem intent on the idea that the masses are dumb, and that it isn't worth it to listen to them. Regardless of what they may think about "average American voters", they have to find a way to appeal to them, and candidates who can win votes. The other problem is that they probably won't have to worry about it, since they'll be able to run on Trump's unpopularity in 2020 or 2024, and win by not being the status quo anymore, even with a mediocre candidate.

[Person Man]

Define capable. I don't think they ever would, since the current party leaders seem intent on the idea that the masses are dumb, and that it isn't worth it to listen to them. Regardless of what they may think about "average American voters", they have to find a way to appeal to them, and candidates who can win votes. The other problem is that they probably won't have to worry about it, since they'll be able to run on Trump's unpopularity in 2020 or 2024, and win by not being the status quo anymore, even with a mediocre candidate.

Running against an incumbent president hasn't worked out since 1992. 2020 will be a long shot unless his luck actually starts to run out.

[Shadows]

If the Democrats do not reform, the future of the party is in danger. Look at what happened to the whigs.

I think 2020 will be critical & if nothing is done & if Trump wins big there will be a full scale mutiny!

[HagridOfTheDeep]

If the Democratic party leadership is smart/not captured by bad incentives, it will move to the center on social issues and move to the left on economic issues...

but it is both dumb and captured by a system of bad incentives, so it will continue it's moronic strategy of identity politics and economic triangulation that will at best win a narrow Presidential election victory but not Congress and not the state houses.

Ugh. If this happens I'll become an Independent again. I want a diverse cosmopolitan party, lol.

[GlobeSoc]

If the Democratic party leadership is smart/not captured by bad incentives, it will move to the center on social issues and move to the left on economic issues...

but it is both dumb and captured by a system of bad incentives, so it will continue it's moronic strategy of identity politics and economic triangulation that will at best win a narrow Presidential election victory but not Congress and not the state houses.

Ugh. If this happens I'll become an Independent again. I want a diverse cosmopolitan party, lol.

Sorry, but a cosmopolitan party doesn't win the congress nor the presidency, not in the current era. As a party, the Democrats need to sacrifice their Clintonian cultural appeal to suburbia to become a stronger party. Being a party aligned with Urban areas and culturally-liberal suburbs is an inherent systemic disadvantage because of things like the electoral college and the senate. A populist Democratic party would alleviate the systemic disadvantages created by the current alignment.

[ApatheticAustrian]

those reform wishes are usually over-the-top.

a candidate whose emails won't be getting hacked, who is more likeable and more of a populist would have won this time too....

[RaphaelDLG]

If the Democratic party leadership is smart/not captured by bad incentives, it will move to the center on social issues and move to the left on economic issues...

but it is both dumb and captured by a system of bad incentives, so it will continue it's moronic strategy of identity politics and economic triangulation that will at best win a narrow Presidential election victory but not Congress and not the state houses.

Ugh. If this happens I'll become an Independent again. I want a diverse cosmopolitan party, lol.

I'd find you much more tolerable if you were a liberal Republican. 

At any rate, what Titanium said above is accurate; instead of politics in America settling primarily along the axis of class and providing us with a decent, efficient welfare state and consumer protections, racism and religion have allowed to become multiaxial and as a result policies to help working people have become diluted.  I'd love for everybody to become progressive on every sort of issue, but that won't happen any time soon, and in the meantime, i'd like to push class issues that affect everybody.  But someday.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

In reality, it doesn't really matter where the candidate stands on an imaginary ideological line. Normal human beings don't think like you, atlas users.

[Suburbia]

4 years later.....this question needs to be asked again

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

If the Democratic party leadership is smart/not captured by bad incentives, it will move to the center on social issues and move to the left on economic issues...

but it is both dumb and captured by a system of bad incentives, so it will continue it's moronic strategy of identity politics and economic triangulation that will at best win a narrow Presidential election victory but not Congress and not the state houses.

Ouch!