IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY COLLAPSING? – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  Well, now there's a question to wake us up.   I wouldn't break out the champagne just yet.  Wait, we're talking about liberals.  I wouldn't break out the herbal healing libations just yet.  But there are signs that the party that was riding high just two years ago may be looking at the junk heap of history, and calling ahead for accommodations.  From Contentions: 

Here are the latest findings from Democracy Corp, the group headed by James Carville and Stanley Greenberg:

Monthly tracking from Citizen Opinion shows troubling trends in the public’s experience, perceptions and conclusions. Virtually every personal measure has returned to the lowest point on our seven months of tracking and macro-expectations have darkened too. These shifts coincide with news in July of slower job growth, persistently high unemployment and weaker than expected 2nd quarter GNP growth.

These darkening perceptions have consequences: Democrats are lagging further behind Republicans on which party can best deal with the economy.

The analysis goes on to claim this:

Voters now give the Republicans a 49 to 36 percent advantage on handling the economy, the worst for Democrats in all of our polling.

For the first time in our tracking, a majority of 54 percent believes that President Obama’s economic policies have done nothing to relieve the recession and run up a record deficit; just 39 percent that believe his administration’s efforts averted a worse crisis. This is not consistent with the administration’s argument about economic success.

When asked about the vote in November, 52 percent plan to vote Republican to protest the direction of the economy — 11 points more than voting Democratic to not jeopardize the recovery.

These are terrible numbers for Democrats, of course. What is so striking, though, is how commonplace they all seem — just another drop of bad news in an ocean of bad news.

We are seeing a party (Democratic) and movement (liberalism) in the process of collapsing. That doesn’t mean the ruin will be permanent and irreversible; but it is happening at a remarkable speed. And it is somewhat astonishing to witness.

COMMENT:  What is especially astonishing is that it is happening in the face of an overwhelmingly liberal media, where professional standards of impartiality have broken down.  But Americans now have alternative sources of information, and are using them.  Their trust in the traditional outlets is at a low point.

Freedom rings, and it rocks.  Our freedom to publish, and we express it here in our own small way each morning, is having its effect.  So is a political phenomenon that many politicians refuse to recognize:  Citizens look around them, see reality, and compare it to what the political class is saying.  And they are drawing their own conclusions about that class.

We're on the winning side, but victory has to be fought for by skilled, creative practitioners.  Looking at the Republican Party historically, that's where I worry.

But, for now, things look pretty good.

August 5, 2010