First, we are supposedly a “center right” nation, and thus real leftists aren’t that common.

Secondly, more than being a nation which fits on some artificial scale of “left-right” we are a consumerist nation, one dedicated to buying stuff, and ever more stuff, for ourselves. And doing it as conveniently as possible.

I’d also like to repeat my often asserted opinion that the Democratic Party isn’t a coherent organization - it’s just a group of people who define themselves as “We’re Not Republicans.” I don’t expect much of an effective, coherent response from the Democratic Party as a whole.

Fourthly, I suspect world events will simply overtake the slowness of the US’s internal political machine. The world will just move as we sit here thrashing among ourselves, lamenting the declining influence over the next 4 decades, until we reach a point where we sit at a table with China, Brazil, and India and treat them as equals, and when the paleo-conservatives will have just died off and no one will remember Goldwater, Buchanan, etc.

Time heals all wounds. Well, not really, but it does allow humans to go amnesic and leave the past behind.