A tale of two Pickles

My perspective is that both the Democrats and Republican Parties are in a pickle, that is caught between two choices each of which is unfavorable. Each party must deal with it's extremist wing. For the Democrats this is the Progressives represented by Bernie Sanders, while the Republicans must deal with the Conservatives best represented by Ted Cruz.

The big question for Democrats is how Bernie can bring his supporters back to the Democratic ticket. A recent Politico post claims it is Clinton "job to ask my backers," that is somewhat hopeful for the Democrats because history indicates that in 1968 Eugene McCarthy was too late in bringing his wing of supporters back to Democrat tent and Nixon became the president. In 2004, Howard Dean, brought the Progressive wing back to party and his supporters made efforts to convert his fundraising methods to the Democrats. In 2008, Hillary Clinton folded her more central tent in with the Obama camp. The Republicans have in my opinion a deeper long term pickle.

The Republicans have made majorities in Congress since 1994 historic loss of the House by the Democrats, only George H.W. Bush or George W Bush have been a Republican president since Reagan. The Conservatives voters defected to Ross Perot in 1992, electing Bill Clinton. In 2009 Republicans quickly attempted to bring the Tea Party movement within the Republican tent and have been able to regain both Houses of Congress but the 2008 Campaign and the selection of Romney. The rise of the Trump supporters is a sign that the rank in file Republicans want a in your face candidate. The anti-Trump forces are propelling the Republicans towards the chaos of an open convention, Is burning the tent to the ground really the conservative response to Trump?

I read Politico everyday, it covers national politics with fine grained day by day coverage of political campaigns, as well as longer term perspective from campaigns in the past.