MR. MODERATE SPEAKS OUT – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:  Former Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia is seen as a symbol of the dwindling moderate wing of his party.  Now he is warning of something that is becoming frighteningly clear, that his party is lurching much too far to the left.  He is not alone in his warning, but the party doesn't appear to be listening.   From The Hill:

Former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on Sunday said the Democratic Party has moved "very far to the left" over the past five or six years.

In an interview on NBC's "Meet The Press," Webb said the Democrats are looking at 2018 and they "don't have a message."

"When you can't have a Jefferson-Jackson dinner, which was a primary celebratory event of the Democratic Party for years, because Jefferson and Jackson were slaveholders," Webb, a candidate in the 2016 Democratic primary race, said.  "They were also great Americans in their day. Something different has happened to the Democratic Party."

Webb said the Democratic Party's message has "been shaped toward identity politics"

"And they've lost the key part of their base," he said.

"The people who believe that regardless of any of these identity segments, you need to have a voice in a quarters of power for those that have no voice. And we've lost that for the Democratic Party."

Webb said the Democrats haven't done the kind of "self reflection" they needed starting in 2010.

"You've lost white working people. You've lost flyover land, and you saw in this election what happens when people get frustrated enough that they say, 'I'm not going to take this,'" he said.

"There is an aristocracy now that pervades American politics. It's got to be broken somehow in both parties, and I think that's what the Trump message was that echoed so strongly in these flyover communities."

COMMENT:  Webb won't be listened to.  The party is plainly in the hands of the Bernie Sanders crowd.  And you can't appease them.  You must go along with them on every issue, lest you be called a racist or something similar.

And don't be a white male.  Please.  Oh, unless you're Bernie.

February 13,  2017