Last week's column argued that effective resistance to Donald Trump's authoritarianism requires effective reform on the part of the Democratic Party; that if Democrats are truly serious about stopping Trump and "saving our democracy," they will take steps to make their own brand less toxic.

This will mean, among other things, moving from roughly the 10-yard line on the left side of the ideological playing field somewhere close to the 50, around which most of the voters are usually grouped.

Easier said than done, of course, especially when considering the degree of tribalistic conformity afflicting both left (woke) and right (MAGA), and the manner in which each defines itself in opposition to the other.

The battle between electoral pragmatism and ideological purity has been around for as long as political parties, but it is only in the past couple of decades that the latter seems to be consistently prevailing over the former, to the detriment of parties and nation.

Up into the present century, the formula for winning presidential elections in our two-party system was fairly simple--occupy the center-left or center-right and let the other side get stuck further right or left. Either party moving too far from center presented an opportunity for the other to paint it as outside the mainstream.

Winning elections mattered........

© Arkansas Online