Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

The short answer to your question, Virginia, is: Yes, there is a Democratic Party here in Connecticut. There are at least two, possibly as many as three or four in-state Democratic Parties. The Republican Party, as you may know, is little more than a Potemkin village governed by village idiots. As both political parties shed their substance and become more moderate, they assume a ghostly shape and become mere shadows of what they once were. It was not always so. Every so often, one finds a person who possesses what used to be called an institutional memory. Nowadays we call such people “party activists,” and they are especially energetic during primaries. But wait … I see I shall have to explain what a primary is. I think you have a rudimentary notion of what a political party is: It’s a political organization centered in a body of ideas designed to elect people to office. Primaries were supposed to wrest from party bosses decision making powers concerning what people shall occupy po...