The Mahablog: Why Democrats?

What is the relationship between liberals and the Democratic Party? If any?

I direct your attention to this pro-Big Tent, "rally 'round the Dems" post by Armando at Daily Kos and the comments thereafter. Here is the dilemma, as I see it.

On the one hand, us old folks remember well how single-issue, "identity" politics just about killed the Democratic Party in the 1970s. The idealism of the 1960s devolved into self-centered demands for “us,” as defined by race, ethnicity, sex, religion, sexual orientation, or physical disability. The Democratic Party found itself hostage to myriad squabbling factions with no appreciation for compromise and no interest in each others’ causes. During the televised 1972 Democratic national convention the squabbling went public, and viewers who tuned in expecting to see George McGovern's acceptance speech instead saw hours of floor fights and spontaneous demonstrations by the "identity politics" crowd. White blue-collar Democrats in particular began to see the Democrats as the party of radical fringe minority groups and the Republicans as the party for regular white folks. These voters became the "Reagan Democrats" of 1980. Even though Reagan (and now Bush) economic policies screwed blue-collar workers royally, the Dem party never fully regained the blue-collar votes it used to be able to count on.