Hubris? Or direction?

One legitimate, non-partisan question that can be asked about the Democrat's predicament is the Party's fall from grace a function of the arrogance of too much power - having such large majorities that they didn't think they had to play by the rules? Or is their failure a function of behaving too much like Leftists and letting that behavior shine out in public?

I suspect it's a bit of both. Hubris is a natural sin condition of those in power, it's not surprising that a party with as much latent political power as the Democrats in 2009 would be tempted into it. But there are special factors that make it more of a Democrat problem: BHO was not a normal candidate and was not treated normally by the MSM - he was lauded as "the one" and no negative news - about his inexperience, his leftism, his unsavory sponsors ever was allowed to get enough traction to be honestly discussed. It's unimaginable that a hard right Obama would get the same pass.

And the direction that the left has been trying to take the country is clearly wrong-headed: Jamming health and climate legislation that make no sense economically or environmentally just to prove to one's base that you are committed is a mistake that the more (small, 'c' as in cautious) Republicans are unlikely to make.

So hubris on tactics hurt the Democrats grieviously. But so did a racialist culture and strategic wrong-headedness.