The Democrats have not recovered from their move left in 1972 and are rapidly becoming a party of special interests that has little in common with their traditional blue collar base.
My personal barometer is my mother-in-law who voted largely Republican in the last state election in Minnesota and would probaly vote for Bush in '04 over any of the Democrat contenders. For her this is a significant change.
Here is another take on the ongoing battle between the DLC and the goofy Marxist Democrat majority. I maintain that the DLC is actually no different than the Marxist base of the Scumbag Party - - they just want to lie about the true Democrat agenda of belittling and destroying traditional America and its family-oriented culture. Give the Howard Dean/Scumbag Underground Democrats credit - - at least they are up front about what they want to do to the country.