When grassroots activists and union leaders threatened to withhold campaign donations from Democratic Congressmen who voted for Fast Track, it should have been a wake up call for all Democrats. If party members have been reduced to threatening representatives just to ensure voter interests are protected, then you know the party has lost its way. In essence, our leaders have become nothing more than leeches feeding off the public trough, and instead of representing our interests; they have gorged themselves on lobbyist bribes and campaign contributions, while leaving us to fend for ourselves -- without adequate representation in D.C.

And for many Democrats that presents a dilemma that can have only two solutions: Either we form a new political party, or we clean house and elect people who will be responsive to our needs.

Robert Kuttner:

It's about time that the Democratic rank and file rebelled against the corporate domination of the Democratic presidential party. Last week's events should ring down the curtain on the era of "trade" deals like NAFTA and TPP.

It's fine for Republicans and their corporate allies to promote this stuff. We expect it of them. But the 99 percent deserve a party of our own. If a Democratic White House doesn't get that, this steamrolling is well-deserved.
http://www.commondreams.org/...

The problem is the White House gets it – and they know exactly whom they are isolating: but the president doesn’t care. He has consistently proved his disinterest in constituents from day one of his presidency, opting instead to cater to the needs of his campaign donors. For six years, voters at the bottom end of the political spectrum have been forced to watch Obama protect and reward the criminals who caused the 2007 global financial collapse. At the same time, millions of innocent Americans were victimized by the corruption that grew out of the resurrection of Wall Street. Even worse, the party that normally represented their financial interests turned its back on them, opting instead to choose personality over policy, and even going so far as to launch full-scale attacks against members of the base who had the temerity to protest.

Who could have imagined in 2008, when we pulled the lever for Obama, that six years later we would be watching him standing arm-in-arm with Paul Ryan, one of the most despicable, soulless members of the Republican Party, waging war against Democrats?

Bill Moyers and Bernard Weisberger described the Frankenstein relationship between Obama and the Republicans this way:

The unholy trio of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (who has vowed to keep any of Obama's nominees from being confirmed), Speaker of the House John Boehner (who has thwarted just about every Democratic legislative proposal of the past several years), and President Obama (a Democrat, in case you are having trouble remembering)…
http://billmoyers.com/...

We remember. In fact, we’ll never forget.

And the duplicity has made us so angry; we’re organizing, and we’re beginning to fight back.

But how did we lose our way? We had so much hope invested in Obama’s presidency; we believed it would usher in a new era of justice and prosperity; and yet, here we are, almost three years into his second term, mounting major grass roots campaigns to defeat the TPP, the most diabolical corporate funded crusade to turn our democracy into a global satellite in modern times. And the corporate figurehead leading the fight to screw the American people is also the head of the Democratic Party.

We are at a critical junction; if Democratic members do not put an end to Obama’s duplicity, then the growing division between Hillary supporters and Bernie backers will spill over into an open brawl at the 2016 Democratic Convention, and any effort to tamp down our anger through PR designed manipulation gimmicks will only increase its intensity.

For those of us who form the Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders wing of the party, Hillary Clinton’s approach to healing the rift has only exacerbated the problem; we just don’t believe her. Most of us are old enough to have followed her career from its inception and we know the true Hillary too well to buy the new FDR/liberal/populist image she is projecting. That is the reason we love Bernie. His appeal is based on his ability to speak from his heart: not from a PR, poll driven script.

So, given the damage the breach in relations could inflict on the Democratic Party’s future, it is clear that either we find a solution to the problem, or we face having to go our separate ways.

And for the party to heal, the primary driver of populist anger needs to be addressed, and that is the use of triangulation to isolate liberals, the faction of the party that is normally responsible enough to keep party leaders in check. And it’s important to note the person who created this divisive tactic was also named Clinton.

Triangulation is the most cynical, cowardly method of getting your way if you are a politician. It is narcissistic in its intent – placing the interests of the politician above the needs of his or her constituents -- and it is incredibly cruel because it plays on the vulnerabilities of targeted demographics to create the division. And Obama has used triangulation masterfully. Shortly after taking office, he blindsided millions of progressives -- the people who had donated critical time and money to see him elected – by shutting them out of the White House. We were vilified, ridiculed, and then ostracized from the inner workings of the party, while Obama cajoled and manipulated four factions of the party to create a counter force to provide cover for implementing his Republican policies. It was a betrayal that shook the party to its core. And six years later, we’re still at each other’s throats. Except now, millions of Democrats, people who once were allies, have no interest in working together. The bullying, the insults, and the attempts at manipulation have exhausted us; in fact, we view the other side to be as much of an enemy as we do the Republicans.

And now, we are left without any consensus for moving forward. The centrist Democrats simply deny there is a problem, and the decision to ram Hillary’s candidacy down our throats without any allowance for discussion was a major mistake; and unfortunately, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Every attempt to promote her faux populist image only makes us more determined to resist her “inevitability.”

And Democrats need to shut down the OFA, or at least curtail its ability to organize and coordinate faux outrage attacks against other Democratic members. Their actions are the antithesis of traditional Democratic values, and their bullying campaigns resemble the tactics Sen. Joe McCarthy employed to silence his critics.

Unfortunately, for Obama and DNC leaders (and Hillary by default), most of the people ostracized were the members most likely to vote.
Consider this statement published by USA Today in 2012:

Senior citizens are much more likely than younger people to show up on election day to cast ballots. Nationwide, 61 percent of people age 65 and older voted in the 2010 election, compared to 46 percent of all citizens
http://money.usnews.com/...

And the huge crowds of older voters attending Bernie’s rallies illustrate how the current rift inside the Democratic Party doesn’t bode well for centrist Democrats and Hillary.

NOTE FOR ALL DEMOCRATIC LEADERS: During the upcoming, relevant elections, the following Democrats will have a huge voter target painted on their backs, and they will be be denied another term in office: Michael Bennet (Colo.), Tom Carper (Del.), Chris Coons (Del.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Mark Warner (Va.), and Ron Wyden (Ore.).