Is Dem party static?

Has it changed over the years? Will it continue to change (assuming it has) or will it change? How best to help it change in positive ways? Should it, and the repub party, be split into other groupings?

Just some things I'm thinking about.

During the Civil War, the Democrats were the right-wing party, and the Republicans were the liberals. (Yes, Freepers, Lincoln was a liberal). There have been a lot of shifts over the years, most recently during the civil rights era and its aftermath.

I am tired of pledge yourself to The Party stuff. Nowhere is it written that the parties remain the same. So, how to effect change in ways that best represent me? Inside or outside?

If the party changes under your feet, it's hard to know where to go.

I've been thinking about that too. Because Bush has discredited just about every single idea of the Republican Party, I think that there is a real possibility that the Dems will become the new dominant party for some time. While this is wonderful in many ways, once it becomes the establishment, any movement will inevitably become more conservative, more protective of powerful interests and the status quo, and less interested in fighting for the little guy.

This leaves us (the progressive wing) in a bit of a bind, in the long term. Branching off to form a third party will not work: Our system will never support more than 2 major parties, because of its winner-take-all system of awarding power. Maybe if there is a real leftward shift in US politics, a new party will rise up to the left of the Democrats, like the Greens or the Social Democrats, as the Republicans wither away. This kind of thing has happened before (remember the Whig party?). I certainly don't advocate that kind of thing now, but in a couple decades, who knows what will happen?

I know people who have voted them all their lives who aren't now. I don't know. Maybe it still has to get worse for positive change to happen.