Nice read and very informative.
One bone to pick with you. You don't think the current crop of Democrats aren't neocons? The way they celebrated McCain (the neocon's neocon) should tell you plenty. The way they are rehabilitating GWB? The way they cheer John Brennan? Who's next? Dick Cheney? I would recommend Cheney to quickly attack Trump to get back into Dem's good graces before he dies. Can you imagine what that funeral would look like?
Essentially we are at war. It's not a shooting war, but a war that decides whether the rule of law and the Constitution holds, or whether we tear it all up and become an authoritarian dictatorship.
When at war, you accept allies where you can find them, even if their ideologies aren't in line with yours. I have heard many Democrats point out they disagreed with John McCain's politics, but they respect him as a person based on his behavior as a POW and some of the stands he took in politics.
GWB was an epicaly bad president, probably the 2nd worst the US ever had. However he too opposes Trump. For all his other faults GW Bush is not a racist and has some other positive traits.
When in crisis you need to triage. In the late 1930s and early 1940s the Republicans were beginning to get some traction pushing back on Roosevelt's New Deal. The Republicans won 72 seats in the 1938 midterm elections. On Dec 8, 1941 all those divisions were set aside because there was a higher priority both parties could agree on.
We are at another crisis point. It's time for people across the ideological spectrum to deal with the crisis and deal with the other political concerns later. There are Republicans and former Republicans who are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with Democrats and anyone else willing to oppose this fascism. Some have come out and said everyone should vote Democrat, not for ideological reasons, but to protect the republic. I have no illusions they are going to change their ideological stances, but the left should welcome them rather than turn their back because they aren't denouncing their ideology too.
It's good strategy to welcome these people for what they are: allies in a fight. They are doing something risky for them and they are losing friends doing this. Acceptance from the left lowers the bar for them to cross and more will join the fight rather than hide in the closet hoping the monster goes away.
And there may be an upside. A lot of these people have been in the conservative news bubble long enough they believe all sorts of untrue things about the left and maybe their crossing the line will educate them that the left aren't made up of ideological unyielding monsters. Welcoming them goes a long way towards this goal too.
I don't think the anti-war Democrat exists anymore. The progressive wing is all that is left to fight the military industrial complex. And maybe the libertarian leaning Republicans like Rand Paul.
Most of what you say about Trump is correct but one of the reasons he won was he campaigned to the left of HRC on war. He made HRC look like a neocon, which she is based on her policies. He isn't governing that way but there is an insight to what the voters feel about the Democrats becoming closer to the Republicans on this issue.
As for the Russian collusion story, I don't think it matters because a successful impeachment is off the table. No way the Senate gets 67 votes to remove him. Democrat voters should give up hope that he will be removed before his first term has ended.
The story continues only to weaken Trump going into 2020.
The Democratic party and the mainstream news media has operated under a constant bombardment from the right for 30+ years. Every progressive idea has been vigorously and usually successfully attacked from the right. That's weakening now and a new generation of politicians are coming into the forum who don't cow to right wing attacks.
