> Gingrich started integrating grassroots rightwing groups, from gun
activists
> to the Christian Coalition types, into the GOP apparatus starting in the
> early 80s. That was what allowed the right to become fully ascendant by
> 1994.
>
> I would love to see the same fervor by left activists in taking over the
> Democratic apparatus, but most seem far more entranced by the useful
> exercise of building marginal, spoiler Green parties
You make it seem as if liberal activist groups are a vast bloc of Green Party hardliners dogmatically opposed to working with Democrats. You know the opposite is true. The vast majority of liberal activists would love to get a call from Tom Daschle seeking to build a left-wing Contract With America. They'd be on board in a second. The problem is that Tom Daschle is terrified of doing in 2002 what Newt Gingrich did in 1994. Why?
So far your excuse has been that Dems don't have the leverage - they're faced with a hostile White House and not enough members on Capitol Hill. Yet in 1993, Gingrich's Republicans were in *much* worse shape in both houses of Congress than Dems are today.
That's why a lot of people on the left - whatever they think of Nader - believe there's something deeper blocking the Democrats from pushing for change.
Seth