The Democratic Party has become a lot more like me over the last 25 years. I've always been pretty liberal. Which is about what 2/3s of the Democratic Party is now. But it was only 1/3 of the Party back in 2000.
The fault lines that tipped a person left or right back in 2000, as I recall it, were:
1. Taxes on the rich (left in favor, right against)
2. abortion (left pro-choice, right not)
3. character traits (left favor wonky technocratic boy scouts, right favor boozy frat boys)
The race between Gore and Shrubya boiled down to massive tax cuts for the rich, squandering the budget surplus that Clinton produced, and who it would be more fun to get drunk with.
The Democratic Party embraced its Civil Rights heritage and has tried to staunchly defend and represent all disadvantaged groups in America.
But a big schism in the 2024 election was trans rights. Even many liberals don't believe it is fair for a person born male to compete as a female in sports. I remember when I was a kid and watching Dr. Renee Richards playing Wimbledon. I thought it was logically odd, and wondered about inherent advantages RR might have, but because RR never did much damage on the women's tour, it didn't become a flash point, for me or anybody else, in retrospect.
I think that changed when the woman from Penn (Lia Thomas) won an NCAA title in 2022.
Before the 2028 national election campaign starts in 2027 or so, I wonder if the Democratic Party leadership is going to engage in possible reconsideration of any of its positions on trans issues. Wrongly, trans people get demonized by the right. And look aways from the middle, who don't want to even think about them. And probably tepid support at best from the left, who by putting something on the line to stand up for trans people and their rights don't realize how susceptible they make their national and state-wide candidates to electoral defeat. Where do we go from here?