Scott Evil said:

>But I wonder if with a far left Dean running will that discourage the extreem
>left from going Nader/Green and only inspire them to take the Democratic
>party farther to the left?

I don't think the Democrats are going the way of the Whig or Federalist parties (it would be a disaster if they did). The Democratic party's left wing will think they're in the drivers seat with Dean's presidential campaign. It'll be a repeat of what happened with George McGovern. For a brief time, they'll be on top of fool's hill before they're suddenly crushed into protoplasmic jelly. Then there will be lots of sorry talk about betrayal and failure of the Democratic party's old guard, the gullibility of the Amercan people, etc. (you've heard it all before). Then a marevellous thing will happen. The lunatic fringe will look at the Green Party and say "That's where we belong!". They'll then march in mass over to the Green Party. Consequently everyone remaining in the Democratic party will cheer because that's when the Democratic party becomes politically viable. In the mean time the Green Party will become an even more shrill and noisy freak show. They'll all be in la-la land, wearing aluminum foil hats and giving each other group hugs. With a little bit of luck they might manage to win one or two seats in the California or Massachusetts legislature or perhaps get someone elected mayor of San Francisco or sheriff of some tiny town in Oregon. The Greens will provide comic relief and become the political garbage can for the Democratic party.

Gary