> If Marvin drew any conclusions, though, from all this, I missed them....
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You largely caught the drift. I thought the Pew poll was pretty clear and
detailed confirmation that liberals and disadvantaged minorities - two of
the three pillars of the Democratic base - have a much higher level of
political consciousness (expressed through policy preferences and voting
behaviour) than the mostly poor white pro-Republican "disaffected" voters
outside the metro areas and the youngish "bystanders" who abstain from
politics altogether.
These findings have often been disputed or ignored on the US left, including on this list. But the results are consistent with American and other social histories showing how these different groups tend to react politically - especially in a systemic crisis. Generations of leftists have consequently sought to identify and collaborate with the most "politically conscious" rather than the most "politically backward" workers, even where they have regarded the political understanding of the former as still being far below their own, and even if the latter have happened to be the most oppressed.
The political conclusion which flows from this is that it is not wise for US leftists make the Democratic Party the focus of their attacks in a period when the progressive constituencies described by Pew still have confidence in it. It seems to me that if leftists don't want to collaborate with these groups, they should at least avoid the appearance of being overtly hostile to them and their current objectives. That stance hasn't accomplished much, evidenced by the failed efforts to build third parties to the left of the DP when the left's natural constituencies have not indicated any interest in moving in this direction. They won't do so on the basis of appeals directed to them from the outside when circumstances don't favour it. However, if and when a third party becomes a realistic possibility, I'm confident most leftists will be pulled, regardless of the positions they presently hold, to where it is is being born - whether largely inside or outside of the DP.