Expect the same impulse to dominate the Democratic Party as it heads toward 2020. Elizabeth Warren or Bernie will save us! Anything less than this will not be tolerated by the increasingly leftist base of the Democratic Party. And this is the best thing Trump has going for him.Perhaps the Hillary Clinton candidacy was the last gasp of the technocratic left in the U.S. Beginning in 2020 it looks like we'll see the ascendancy of the ideological left at the presidential level.
In that regard, perhaps the Ds are one 4-year cycle behind the Rs. You could argue that Romney represented the technocratic right whereas Trump represents the Breitbartian ideological right. I bet that''s what Steve Bannon would argue.
As the two parties become more polarized, as their centers of gravity grow farther apart, a candidate's cool competence no longer assuages an angry electorate's fire in the belly, they want raw meat and will choose "hot" candidates who give it to them.
Expect 2020 to feature forlorn never-Trumpers and never-Bernies. These left behinds nevertheless will be too far apart on policy to coalesce into a centrist party of any consequence.
