Again, the problem with premises. It would appear that you assume it's the ideology that binds the parties together. I disagree.
Real Democrats, by which I assume you mean those who are active in the party for something other than business reasons, are an increasingly rare breed. The real Republican is about as rare.
Politics is a business, and divvying up spoils is why most politicos are there.
oh, I'm sorry - I didn't make it clear that I was contemplating only the lowest echelon of the structure of the Democrat Party - those among the voting public who give their allegiance to the DNC. The "mudsill" if you would.
In that limited scope, the "glom" to which I referred is held together by "gimme entitlements". I'm not sure this can be considered an ideology so much as a pampered and short sighted selfishness, an attitude, a deeply ingrained willingness to surrender their self-control and political power to masters who should be servants, in return for the promise that those masters shall oppress the productive to squeeze out handouts for the idle.
I'm trying to figure out what is left of the mudsill if one removes the glom - who are the normal folk, the ones who do not reflexively hold their hands out in the universal "gimme" salute, who comprise the remainder of the mudsill, and what do they want, why do they ally their interests with those of the DNC?
I agree with your assessment of "politicos" - Most of them are there for personal gain to some extent (the terms are basically wealth, authority, and sex - this has ever been so); Some of them are there SOLELY for such gain; A very few -what used to be called Statesmen- are there to SERVE.
Politicos, or elected representatives if we wish to be polite, are what we could call the TOP echelon. I would hazard to guess that these hold the highest concentration of power per-capita of any of the echelons, but as an echelon they are not really the most powerful.
There are other echelons, and these are the more difficult to define, identify, and bring to heel. There are the various appointees and administrative hirelings (let us call this echelon "the entrenched bureaucracy), there are the power-brokers and lobbyists and PACs (let us call this echelon "the in crowd"), there is of course the media (let us call this echelon "the priesthood"), there are the minions of the National Education Association (I have no polite term with which to label this indoctrination machine), and there are the millions of employees of the various organs of the bloated State Services (let us call this echelon "the cogs").
There is, of course, significant overlap and migration between these echelons.
Curbing them will be a nightmare, if it is possible at all.