They were more extreme and obstructionist because the electorate wanted them to be . I feel like this point is entirely lost on liberals . The ones who weren ' t were primaried out hard . You know how you feel about Trump right now ? Republicans felt that way about Obama and took it to the polls . Now they control more political seats than any time since the 1920 s . Right now rather than organizing the Democrats are in complete chaos . You want someone who is qualified , fine , but a lot of people you need to win don ' t seem to when they believe for good reasons that the system works against them . You can continue your infighting , I ' m a conservative so I suppose it benefits me , but you ' re only leading the Democrats to become a regional party with that sort of rhetoric . If this election wasn ' t a massive wake up call , what will be ?