It is so sad that the Democratic Party and so many of its elected officials have become DINOs.

Theparty that many of us believed to be the people's party is no longerthat, but a party of elected elites who ignore and disdain the people,the regular Democrats.

Ian Welsh writes the obituary at Open Left.  Here are some excerpts; go read the entire, brief article.

"Elected Democrats at the Federal level are members of the nationalelite.  If they weren't a member when they were elected, they arequickly brought into the fold.  They are surrounded by lobbyists, othermembers and staffers who were lobbyists, as a rule.  They learn theyneed to raise immense amounts of money in the off years when normalpeople aren't giving, and that the only way to raise that money is forcorporate interests and rich people to write the checks.  They alsoreceive the benefits of elite status, very quickly. It's not anaccident that the every Senator except Bernie Sanders is wealthy.

"To the elites, ordinary Americans are pretty much parasites.  It'snot the bankers, with their multi-trillion dollar bailouts who are theproblem, it's old people with their Social Security and Medicare.  Theelites made it.  They are rich and powerful.  They believe that theirsuccess is due entirely to themselves (even if they inherited the moneyor position).  If you didn't, then that means you don't deserve it.

"Democraticparty elected leaders, as a group, are members of this elite, or arehenchmen (and some women) of this elite.  They believe what the elitesbelieve, and they live within a world whose boundaries are formed bythose beliefs.

"They have no intention of engaging in radicalchange which threatens elite, which is to say, their, prosperity andpower.  The financial industry must be saved, the medical industry mustbe saved.  Social Security and Medicare, which they don't need anddon't benefit from, not so much.  The military, which funnels hugeamounts of money to them, must continue to expand (in real termsmilitary spending is now twice what it was in 2000.)

"As long aselected Democrats at the Federal level are members of this elite, oridentify with the elite they are not going to make fundamental changesagainst the interests of that elite.

"And so, no, there is no"change" you can believe in from this class of Democrats.  There is no"hope" of an America which is better for ordinary people.

"Thatdoesn't mean things are hopeless, but it does mean there's little hopefor anything radical from this Congress or President.

"As AdamSmith pointed out, there's a lot of ruin in a nation.  America's goingto have to endure a lot more of it before things actually change."