As I’ve noted before, the Democratic Party is essentially a coalition of victims opposed to the white Christian patriarchy. The various elements of the coalition have few claims against each other, which means the Democrats don’t have the same kind of factional issues that the GOP has. That doesn’t mean they agree on everything, as noted below:
- Realos vs. Fundis: The terminology comes from the German Green party. Realos (Obama, Clinton) think that making promises that cannot plausibly be kept due to current political realities is a mistake, because in the long run, it just frustrates the base. They also worry about the cost of new government programs and the deficit. Fundis (Sanders) believe that the best way to inspire the base and ultimately move the needle is to demand what you really want regardless of whether it is attainable today; they also agree with the GOP that deficits don’t matter.
- Open vs. Closed: Democratic Party centrists (Obama, and Clinton when she’s being honest about it) believe in free trade and liberal immigration policies, which actually poll well among Democrats. Ironically, the Sanders wing agrees with Trump that free trade is a sucker’s bet for workers, and logically should have concerns about immigration, although Sanders did not say much about that during the 2016 campaign.
- Identity vs. Class: The mainstream of the Democratic Party sees the fundamental struggle of American history as being between socially disadvantaged groups (minorities; women; gays; seculars) and the white male Christian establishment. Representatives of the mainstream (again, Clinton and Obama) are happy to accept votes and donations from affluent professionals, even those who work on Wall Street, who agree with them on this. Sanders, on the other hand, believes that everything ultimately revolves around class distinctions, spurns the assistance of affluent people, and wants to win back Reactionary white workers by proposing government programs to be paid for by wealthy people.
- The Individual vs. the Community: This split exists in both parties, but is more obvious in the GOP. You see it in the Democratic Party on issues like privacy and terrorism. There was no clear difference between Clinton and Sanders on this point.
Where will the party go in 2020? Given the importance of female and minority votes in the primaries, the likelihood of a class-based approach succeeding is very low. My best guess is that Trump will discredit protectionism to the point where it is safe for the Democratic candidate to openly espouse free trade, although that remains to be seen. The realo vs. fundi debate could go either way, and what happens with the individual/community split probably depends on whether we have a large scale terrorist attack between now and 2020.