The SS Democrat may have hit an ice berg

TigerHawk has a post up today about the problems the Democrats have been facing in this year’s election process.( Schadenfreude ) In it he discusses—and agrees with—the Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Bob Herbert. ( Heading Toward the Danger Zone ).
TigerHawk concludes:

The problem is that the most determined candidate is not the most popular, and the line between them has been drawn more by identity and character, which are mirrors that project our self-image, than by meaningful differences in proposed policies or, for that matter, proof of executive experience or ability. It is a terrible bind for the Democrats, and a stroke of luck for the Republicans.

I concur with his (and Herbert’s) analysis that we are witnessing a slow motion train wreck, but would say that this is a problem the Democrats have been fostering for quite some time. The Democrats have been courting disaster by courting voters as blocs as opposed to courting them as Democrats. The Democrats have courted and attempted to appease women, gays, blacks, unionists, Hispanics, peace activists, etc. They have invited them into the fold but have not assimilated them once they have them there. Each group is a click within the party and maintains its own cause(s) and cares. Not being assimilated, a schism can be created within the party allowing one or more groups (or in the worst case scenario ALL the groups) to go their own way. By choosing to live by identity politics, the Democrats are now discovering what it is to die by identity politics.

Contrast this with the Republican Party. Become a Republican and you are either moderate or conservative. These are policy differences and they can be and usually are ironed out. Seldom do you see the same sort of fracturing take place and never have I heard the phrase “women Republicans” or “Hispanic Republicans” or any of the other “identity-group Republicans” used. (Except by the media.) It makes no difference to the Republicans if you are a woman or Hispanic or Black or whatever. What matters is you are a Republican.

Now the conservative members of the Republican Party have taken McCain to task for his work with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform of last summer and McCain-Feingold election laws of a few years back. Some have even said they will sit out this Presidential election because of these and a few other issues. McCain still has a respectable voting record on conservative issues in the Senate, however, and serious reconsideration of that withholding proposal is in order. There is nowhere near as much acrimony on the Republican side as on the Democratic side. There, a sizable chunk of the electorate have said they will, under no circumstances, vote for the other candidate if theirs loses the primary or is seen to have been shunted to the side by the super delegates/party bosses in Denver.

What with the convoluted primary rules (proportionality and super delegates) and violations (Michigan and Florida), mixed with a very lackluster performance in both the House and Senate (how did their job performance rating get so damn low?) and the Democrats may be pulling a defeat out of what was supposed to be a banner year for their party.