1/ When I was young and we were protesting the Vietnam war etc., there was a sense that the Democratic Party was the establishment arm of the counterculture.

2/ Today, in too many cases that’s changed. When right wing populists do their thing, the Republican party embraces them. But when left wing populists do their thing, corporate Democrats say “We don’t know those people.”

3/ That leaves too many people feeling they have no voice within the political system, and the Democratic Party frustrated that more people aren’t using electoral politics as a vehicle of change.

4/ The Republican party has more elitist policies but an oddly more egalitarian relationship to its own constituency. The Democratic Party has more egalitarian policies but an oddly more elitist relationship to its own constituency. This needs to change.