> No, good news for conservative Dems who use the precarious position of the
> party to move the party rightward.
>
> The election of Bush has shifted power within the Dems to the most
rightwing
> parts of the party, since they can give Bush decisive wins or withhold it
> based on deals cut and the fear of total GOP control if those marginal
> districts are not held.
But why don't Republicans behave the same way? In 1992, Clinton won the White House. But Republicans didn't respond by shifting leftward or sliding into disarray. They moved sharply to the right, toward more ideological coherence, discipline and partisanship. The Contract With America, etc.
You make it seem like it's an axiom of politics that electing a president from one party will push the other party toward the center. But that only seems to happen with Democrats. Which makes one suspect that the problem is some structural feature of the Democratic Party (or its ideology), rather than simply insufficient Dem activism.
Seth