among the larger groups that participate on this forum is between members of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Left. The Democratic Party consists of registered democrats, the majority of whom will always vote for a democrat. They view the political struggle in the context of the two-party system. There is, of course, a lot of truth in their position.
The Democratic Left includes some registered democrats, as well as a collection of people who identify themselves as being a Green, a socialist, a democratic socialist, as not belonging to any party, etc. They tend to view the two-party system as keeping the public trapped, by making most elections more about the lesser of two evils. And there is, of course, a lot of truth in their position.
The question becomes one of if these two sides (and I mean in the larger society) can find enough common ground for it to be in everyone's best interests to support a given candidate. When (including on DU) the position is taken that the Democratic Left has no other option, that is, of course, taking a group for granted.
When it comes to party loyalty, many on the Democratic Left have long enough memories to recall several presidential elections where a large number of conservative and even moderate democrats voted for republican presidential candidate -- Nixon in 1972, Reagan twice, etc. It would be difficult to convince the Democratic Left that they share common values with these democrats. But I suppose I should give some of our forum members credit for trying -- although I suspect they should be focusing more attention on their own ranks.
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