Remember, peeps, when somebody on this board wrote that the democratic party would not benefit from Trump's lack of political results and would in fact go lower, that there would be little to no transfer? This is happening with no surprise and the democratic party is struggling to reap fruits from the growing discontentment in the US.
This situation has deep structural causes that has nothing to do with what liberals claim as to be the causes of the situation.
One is the pretence. It is no longer 1776. No president in the US was ever elected on the platform of ending slavery. Just as no president in the US was ever elected on the platform of respecting the treaties signed with the Indians. On the other hand, presidents were elected on the platform of strengthening the institution of slavery (rare occurrence since his project was embedded in the original US project) while presidents were also elected on the platform of breaking treaties signed with the Indians (less rare occurrences since the US had to break their own laws)
Nowadays, it is no longer the case. One party at least must work to keep the face. The democratic party can not compete on the same field as Trump. Somebody must take a bullet for the team and in a two party system, it must be the other party. It is very funny because Trump is trying to eliminate the democratic party in fear of retaliation if they come back to power. But the scope of the retaliation will be small as the democrats' first move would be to re insure their commitment to liberal principles and values. It is a mandatory move. Liberals in the US know it and as they have no autonomy, they are vying for power. And liberals in the US see the futility to join a party that is coerced to restrict its means of action in order to keep the pretence up. Being in power is the best way to get protected from the negative consequences of power, people in power send other people under the bus. And Trump is sending a lot of people under the bus. And the democratic party will have to throw less people under the bus.