The Future of the Democratic Party

I'm a big fan of Billmon's. Tonight he has written, in his own special style, a piece that links nicely with my post about the Dems political organization and my post which ponders the possibility that even the recent Republican self-destruction might not be enough to ensure a Dem win. But he takes it much farther and, with his worldly-wise, big-picture view, he paints us a picture which is striking both for its realism and for its darkness. Read the whole thing here. Here's a sample:

I mean, what exactly do they expect from a party that most of the time literally doesn't have the strength to put up its fists and fight back -- or doesn't have fists on the ends of its arms to fight with? They really expect a party that has one foot in the grave already (with the most ruthless political machine this side of Boss Tweed pushing on its back with a pitchfork) to take on entrenched interests, question hyperpatriotic hysteria and stand up for the Geneva Conventions in a time of permanent, amorphous war?

And if the Dems did take on those suicide missions, would the Howard Finemans and the Sebastian Mallabys of the world be standing on the sidelines, cheering them on? Oh no. They'd be writing contemptuous columns about how the Democrats have lost their minds and marched in lockstep into the fever swamps of the radical left. Hell, they're writing them now.

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The Republicans may lose this election. They're certainly trying hard. They may even lose the next one. But it's going to take more than one or two scandal-boosted victories to persuade me the Dems have a future that doesn't involve being the ornamental decoration on a functionally one-party state.

But of course, if the Dems lose next month, despite the GOP's best efforts to hand them the House and quite possibly the Senate, then I guess we'll know that's where they're heading.