The sad future of the democratic party

[TaraJo]

There are outliers on both sides of the issues. I don't think any group or 'movement' as it were should be defined by its most vocal, assholish outliers.

Agreed.  The asshole extremists are only part of the problem.  We also have the problem in that we don't have enough of the big voices who are able to reasonably communicate reasonable issues.  

Remember MLK?  He was a master at communicating the problems black communities had with racial injustices without being a jerk.  He made it loud and clear that racism, not white people, was his enemy.  He repeatedly called white people his brothers and sisters.  It's gotten to be, unfortunately, rare to see leaders in civil rights take that kind of tone anymore.  And it doesn't help that the increasingly partisan liberal media has been jumping on the jerk bandwagon.  I mean, seriously, see what they have to say about white people on Buzzfeed or MTV News.  

Admittedly, part of that is because, when someone is being an outrageous jerk, they tend to draw attention to themselves.  Quiet, reasonable, intelligent people tend to unfortunately be ignored.