part of, not the whole enchilada.

The democrats - top and bottom - are in the Let's Flirt With Socialism phase. When Mamdani craters New York and makes it a living example of what not to do policy-wise, they'll suddenly tack back to the center. But right now? Socialism is all the rage, baby!

The d's are looking for enduring ways to appeal to people, pure and simple. They tried Identity Politics writ large, thinking that would give them an enduring majority. They've succeeded in turning Latinos into a swing block and are now losing a lot of support from blacks. They're making their last stand with women...but at the same time turning off other women.

They've aligned themselves with fringe positions across the board (open borders, voter ID is bad, the police are bad, boys in girls' sports, where NGO funding goes, wealth taxes, etc. etc.). If they didn't dominate both the cultural zeitgeist and the media plus have their ability to peer-pressure people into supporting them, they'd have gone the way of the Whigs by now.