Good piece that highlights many of the reasons for the death spiral of the Democratic Party. Thanks.
Another contributing factor to the Democrats' self destruction, IMO, is the mainstream media's longstanding support for all things liberal. With the press unquestionably championing their agenda (and at the same time being complicit with their attacks against conservatives) Democrats have had little reason to moderate their positions secure in the knowledge that they would always be supported by the media. In effect, there was no governor on them to control their excesses.
Ping.
Prior to World War II we had an active partisan press in this country. Every city had at least one Democratic paper and one Republican paper. There was no difference between news coverage and editorial stance. All news was slanted, but when you opened up the newspaper you knew what you were getting.
After World War II, with media consolidation, the press took up a bland, elitist, corporatist liberalism, quite different from the radical liberalism one would find among Howard Dean's followers. This is why committed leftists look at our Mainstream Media and immediately pronounce it "conservative". They really mean "corporatist", but they can't pronounce the word or understand the concept.
You are correct in the fact that the Mainstream Media has bedded down with the Democrats so thoroughly that they have lost the ability to control the party's excesses. Until a competing chain of newspapers follows Fox News and re-establishes a strong partisan press, the Democrats are going to have nobody to hold them accountable in the Mainsteam Media.
Fortunately, the Mainsteam Media is dying.