The End of The Party?

Do any of you reading this have friends who post political opinions on Facebook?

Sure you do ...

Recently one of my more progressively political friends posted his decision not to vote for Obama.  He's chosen to vote for another candidate who is less prone to compromise. My arguments that unwillingness to compromise is anathema to democracy, and lies at the heart of our governance problem posed by an unrelentingly stubborn Republican House of Representatives, have so far fallen on deaf ears.  He is firm in his belief the only honest option is to (essentially) opt out.

Of course, his alternate liberal candidate has no chance in the election ...

As with every other random perturbation of logic that has floated across my path of late, I have chosen to take this as a sign of impending change.  Potentially negative, possibly the harbinger of Doom ...

And here it is:  the future of the Democratic Party looks grim and dim.  Or grimmer and dimmer, for those of us already sensing a mean twilight approaching.

Before you mention it let me say that I know my friend's opinion is not the majority.  But his views aren't exactly extreme fringe, and are shared by more than a few, even if most aren't ready to abandon Team Donkey for 40 days in the political wilderness just yet.

But the worry lies in the comparison with the Republicans.  Somehow they encapsulate their fringe and incorporate it while neutralizing its worst political (but not social) effects.  Their fringe will definitely vote for Romney come November. The GOP seems to move forward after disasters like a headless chicken that can still find the coop.  

Not so Demos.  We are divided by failure and then divided again by success.  It's crazy, but that's where we seem to be right now - a party with a sitting President with a chance of being beaten by Mitt Romney, who comes with a classically handsome head but with an indiscernible brain.

So it is that I wistfully predict the demise of the Democratic Party, no matter who actually wins in November.  I hope what arises in its wake is truer to my friend's ideals, but I am not optimistic he will ever get what he wants.  After all, politics is compromise and so is democracy; you really can't have the one without accepting the presence of the other.

Personally, I am hoping that on the day after the election, compromise will begin in earnest, and a functioning democracy is restored.