Extremely well put.
In a nutshell, the problem(s) mostly come about because (in my opinion) of two major basal causes.
One: The Republicans, and to a lesser degree culturally conservative people across that spectrum, have no good ideas. They do, however, have an attitude tied up in the luddite fantasies of destroying progress to "conserve" what is.
This of course disregards that "what is" is pretty damn horrible for a great many of us.
But, at the low end at least, they fear change. Not because of merit, but simply because of fear.
They fight against change rabidly until the change has come and been there for a time, then they fight to preserve the "new" version of "it's always been like this".
Two: The progressive left is enamored of change and ideas. This is good, objectively, but the problem is that they (and I come from this angle) want it all, and they want it now.
This is understandable, and even rhetorically permissible, but we are fighting against an entrenched ... ideology is the wrong word as it implies thought, but I'm not sure what is a fitting word.
On the left, this strident ideology and the desperate need for very real and fundamental changes leads to the dreaded "purity test". Fail it at your peril, if you're on the left.
My ideology is pretty radically left, yet I can accept that a piece of a loaf is better than no bread at all. We need bold leaders, that's a truth. But those leaders are not going to be effective if they have to be constantly fighting their own left wing IN PUBLIC.
Lest I be called a hypocrite, I am guilty of this behavior. Realizing your own faults is a part of fixing them.
The far left would do well to try to steer the more moderate left wing our way. Unlike Europe, we do not have a center-left party. We have far right (Republican), and "all others" in the democrat wing.
A moderate democrat, then, is fairly far to the right of what would be the center in most places. This, while unfortunate, is true. Those are the people that the left should be trying to reach, not demonizing. Because they are the majority, and they are not our enemies.
