Greg - I think the reason the Democrats fail to do something actually substantive, as you had mentioned, is this: Despite posing as a supposedly "liberal" alternative to the Republicans, the Democratic Party actually serves the same imperial vested interests that the Republican Party does...those interests being,

1. the military-industrial complex
2. the major banks
3. the multi-national corporations

In other words, those with the money and the guns.

Those with the money and the guns control both the Democratic and Republican Parties. They use those 2 parties like 2 football teams to divide and conquer the American people by deluding them into the notion that they have a real democracy and a real choice, which they don't.

In order to maintain the illusion of a real choice at the polls, the Democrats and Republicans must appear superficially rather different enough from one another in various ways so that the average American will be convinced that they ARE fundamentally different from one another. Thus the myth is created that the Democratic Party is "liberal" and the Republican Party is "conservative" when they are both essentially imperial fascists serving a great military/commercial empire that lives on a constant war footing and attempts to rule the world.

They are both right of center parties by general world standards, but one of them pretends to be a tad left of center, and that's the Democrats. Given the fact that the Democrats are pretending to be something they are not, they lack the confidence in themselves that the Republicans have, because the Republicans (mostly) are unapologetic fascists, whereas the Democrats are nervous closet fascists who are pretending to be liberal progressives.

I speak, of course, of the ruling central Party structure themselves, not necessarily of all their individual supporters amongst the population, most of whom have no idea how they're being led down the garden path by those 2 parties.

The Tea Party is an instinctive gut reaction to attempt to break out of this hopeless Duopoly charade, but not a very well-informed one, I don't think.

It is necessary for the Democratic Party to fool its supporters into imagining it represents some form of liberal or progressive idealism when all it really represents are a bunch of huge corporations and banks and an aggressive imperial policy. The Republican Party doesn't have to pretend it's anything different than what it is. That gives them more confidence, because they're not so conflicted. They can also hide their naked fascism behind the convenient figleaf of *patriotism/get tough on crime/get tough on drugs*....a great recipe for getting votes from a frightened and angry electorate. The Democrats can't move into that mold so easily without appearing to become "Republican Lite", so they are at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing themselves.

Whichever one of these parties gets into power, it serves the main vested interests of the Empire, and thus it offends the world, kills Third World people, and betrays the American people. This guarantees that it will soon make itself so unpopular that it will get kicked out of office, and the other one will take over (as happened after 8 years of Bush), but very little will change other than the superficial rhetoric. The wars will continue. New wars will be planned. The middle class will be gutted. Jobs will be lost. The rich will get richer. The poor will get poorer.

This empire will fail. It has to, because it's way out of touch with reality, and it's going bankrupt. Money is the final arbiter. When empires run out of money to pay for their wars, they collapse.