Trying to Save the Democrats from Themselves

My friend Pastorius at CUANAS echoes my thoughts below about saving the party from flaming out in utter craziness. But he is talking about the other party...

Now, listen up Dems, because you really need to hear this. Currently, you are like the guy down the street who is always beating his wife, and screaming at his children; everybody on the block knows, but you don't know they know.
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Like I said, listen up Dems. Because this is what is really going on. You are being made fools of. You are being set up, and everytime you take the bait and set off into an insane temper tantrum. You look like crazy people. You know, like straight jacket time. Think Ophelia from Hamlet. Think Daffy Duck running away tearing his feathers out. You look like you are out of your freaking minds.

Get a grip on yourselves. It's unbecoming. It's embarassing. Especially to someone like me, who used to be one of you, and would still be, if you hadn't gone completely off the edge.

The net effect of your behavior is that the sane people will not want to be around you anymore. As you lose your minds, you will lose all the real brains among you (I'm not counting myself in that group). You will lose your ability to function at a high level. You will lose your power.

This state of affairs is not good for America. I do not share Rush Limbaugh's merriment at the oncoming demise of the Democratic Party. I believe the two-party system is essential to progress, to fairness, to ensuring that the whole country doesn't go bonkers, frankly.

Now Pastorius and I have this in common, that we are both ex-Democrats. I am a little more ex that he is, but we both maintain a certain wistful affection for the Less-than-grand Party.

I wonder, however, if this may be misplaced. I suspect that the Democratic party isn't really going to crash and burn, but if it did those people who are still sensible would wind up migrating to the Republican side and causing problems over there. Eventually the Repbulicans would wind up splitting into separate factions (currently it looks like Neocons vs Theocons, but who can say for sure). This happened during the slavery debates in the 1850s which is how the Republican party was born. I can't say whether this would be a better effect than saving the Dems. I can really argue both sides of the issue. But I do know from history that there frequently comes a point past which the old system cannot be saved and a new system inevitably evolves to take its place. Being a Hayek-geek, I tend to trust such processes of muddling through more than I do having some theoretical ideal. But I am fully cognizant that the details of such shifts can often be very distressing.

UPDATE: I had a real problem narrowing down Pastorius' rant to a quotable size. Read the whole thing and also the original post from the Anchoress that he was keying off.