A very sobering view of the Democratic Party -- beyond the White House

Making the point that "Democrats have been obliterated at the state level," Matthew Yglesias, writing for Vox, says:  "The Democratic Party is in much greater peril than its leaders or supporters recognize, and it has no plan to save itself."

Referring to the thousands of critically important offices all down the ballot, Yglesias points out that "70 percent of state legislatures, more than 60 percent of governors, 55 percent of attorneys general and secretaries of state — are in Republicans hands.  And, of course, Republicans control both chambers of Congress."
 
These are rather dismal indicators that the Democratic Party is in serious trouble and seems to have "nothing at all in the works to redress their crippling weakness down the ballot. . . .  Instead, the party is focused on a competition between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton over whether they should go a little bit to Obama's left or a lot to his left, options that are unlikely to help Democrats down-ballot. . . .   The GOP might be in chaos, but Democrats are in a torpor. . . . 

"Elections for state legislature rarely make the national news, but they are the fundamental building blocks of American politics. Since they run the redistricting process for the US House of Representatives and for themselves, they are where the greatest level of electoral entrenchment is possible.

"And in the wake of the 2014 midterms, Republicans have overwhelming dominance of America's state legislatures. . . .

"Winning a presidential election would give Republicans the overwhelming preponderance of political power in the United States — a level of dominance not achieved since the Democrats during the Great Depression, but with a much more ideologically coherent coalition. Nothing lasts forever in American politics, but a hyper-empowered conservative movement would have a significant ability to entrench its position by passing a national right-to-work law and further altering campaign finance rules beyond the Citizens United status quo."

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And I would add the worst outcome of all:   Having a Republican president appoint the next three or more Supreme Court Justices.

I'm sure someone could write a rebuttal to this pessimistic view -- but we should recognize the truth and listen to this wake-up call.   The Democrats have become a top-down party, while the Republicans have rebuilt themselves as a bottom-up party.

Ralph