Former Republican stillidealistic wrote, in Genghis's To Vote or Not to Vote thread:

I am not thrilled with the dems. This party is more dysfunctional than I ever would have imagined. Someone commented that keeping the dems in line is like herding cats, and then there's the old "I'm not a member of an organized political party, I'm a democrat." Both statements are sadly true.

The Republicans as a political party operate in a far more authoritarian manner (some might use the phrase "less anarchic") than the Democrats do, and they are far more authoritarian in outlook than Democrats.  (see Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics, Marc Hetherington's provocative and excellent book, for more on this.) They have a lot of problems right now of their own.  But they self-organize better than we do.  We have a hard time organizing at all.  Sometimes I think we are philosophically offended by the idea of working with a plan.  We think it insults our intelligence to accept a part for ourselves to help implement a plan if there are parts of it--and there almost always are, especially if it's not our own plan--that we disagree with.

I took it these may have been some of the things Bill Clinton meant, more or less, when he said that Republicans look to fall in line behind their candidates, whereas Democrats want to fall in love with their candidates.  That's as close as a politician like Bill Clinton will ever come to gently chiding some of his party's supporters.

Bill Bradley once said in an interview that politics attracts a lot of people who are talkers rather than doers.  I don't accept the dichotomy as being as stark as his comment suggests.  Sometimes talking is also doing.  But I know what he is saying.  What the candidate who is out there busting her ass trying to get elected finds unhelpful is campaign workers debating the merits of some policy issue or campaign decision.  Their thought is, roughly, "look, if you want to run for office, run for office and then you can do whatever you want.  But right now, that's not helping me.  And I need your help!"  "Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians" is a saying that reflects a similar sentiment.  (I'm not sure if that is considered offensive these days to some native Americans.  If so, I apologize.  I meant to use it as an illustration.)

That part of the Democratic party's base of support which includes opinionated people with a lot of formal education who are confident in their intellects, me included, are going to carp and criticize our candidates from now until the cows come home.  We've absorbed the idea of questioning and critiquing authority.  We pride ourselves on not being a bunch of mindless automatons like the Republicans, who we see as unquestioningly taking orders as well as received opinions from their leaders.  We are hyper-egalitarian.  Or maybe just hyper-skeptical. Or maybe we just have a big problem with authority in general, of any sort.  Authority is so unfair (not always)!  It's so...hierarchical (true)! 

We may think all of this is on balance a good thing.  Because to discuss and teach and sometimes quarrel amongst ourselves is, after all, a big part of what democracy and being an engaged citizen is supposed to be about, isn't it?  

Well, yes it is. 

That doesn't mean this tendency is necessarily or always helpful to actually bringing about progressive change.  Some--no doubt including some of us in work or other contexts--describe the phenomena I'm writing about as "navel gazing", or "talking things to death".  I think that is overly harsh as a broadbrush indictment.  But I get what they're saying.  I've certainly participated in plenty of discussions, both in and outside of politics, that don't feel like a worthwhile or productive use of my or anyone else's time.  Is there anyone here who hasn't?

Republicans as a party do actually make decisions and stick with them, implement them over the long haul.  Democrats as a party have a very hard time doing that in my experience.  We are much more disposed to re-examine the earlier kind of, sort of decision, to question whether really it is the best course of action in light of new information or insights, or whatever.  And sometimes the earlier sort of decision really was ill-advised and should be ditched if it can't be salvaged.  I know these are generalizations, which means there are exceptions to them.  But they are consistent with my experiences in politics.        

I think Democrats usually govern better in part because our dominant response to dissent is to listen to and evaluate it, and possibly in some contexts even see it as valuable, a way to learn relevant things and arrive at a better decision.  That same tendency probably makes us less effective in winning elections.  We often don't agree and stick to, or even formulate, a clear message or strategy.  If there is a national message the Democrats are trying to put out there at the moment other than "they're worse than we are!" I've missed it.  Is the thinking that that is supposed to be enough to carry the day?  The best we can do right now?  The lowest common denominator?  All of the above?

Republicans in my experience are far less inclined to accept, let alone seek out, a wider range of views and see that as possibly beneficial.  They are much more authoritarian.  We won the damned election, now we're going to do what we want to.  The folks who don't agree with us can go off in their corner and talk amongst themselves all they want.  We create reality; they analyze it to death (remember the Bush WH staff person comment reported by Ron Suskind not so long ago?).  We're moving on and we're not wasting time with endless discussion and debate.  That's what Democrats do. 

If I were going to fully walk my talk on what I've said above, I suppose I would take this opportunity to cease and desist from discussions on matters of the sort I am raising until after the election.  I am almost certain I will not do that.  I plead guilty.  I might as well, since I don't have a leg to stand on here. 

In conclusion, please do not comment in this thread.  Unless, of course, you find that you can't seem to help yourself.    Any self-parody in this post is entirely intentional.