Democrats

My theory is that during reign of the Bush-Cheney "wartime" autarchy the Democrat's ability to engage in politics with Republicans, in any constructive way, became debilitated. Having let their critical faculties go to rot for almost eight years they can only propose old left ideological nostrums from the past, such as trying to resuscitate the corpse of Hillarycare, or adopting some of the more odious Republican ideas that they got used to acquiescing in during the previous administration, such as ignoring the war crime of torture.