a rather simple and straight-forward review of politics history for the last 70 odd years show that conservatives did that just fine on their own, it's pretty disingenuous to act like liberals are to blame for the fact that Republicans as a party went collectively bat-shit.
Perhaps it is the Democrats only choice because the mood of the country is overwhelmingly conservative.
except that this is a fallacy - look at any poll or any study about actual values and attitudes towards social issues and the country always polls pretty overwhelmingly (in the 60% or higher range) in favor of socially liberal and progressive ideals - abortion, gay marriage, health insurance, social security, etc etc.
it's just that this country's complete's bugfuck stupid political map gives inordinate power to low population backwood hillbilly states, and the people in those states are easy to corral via religious wedge issues.
This movement to the right by the Democrats has validated the anti-progress, know nothing, everything to the already rich, movement conservatism, rather than offering an alternative to it. The country is suffering because of it and will continue to suffer until there is a real progressive movement in the country.
it strikes me as being very wrong to try and blame that on Dems, when in fact it's the fault of voters - if you want a great example of this, look no further than 2004.
howard dean was the sort of progressive liberal candidate that people have been claiming they want from Dems for 20 years, and the voters utterly screwed the pooch and fucked themselves over that year.
you can't blame parties for being made of people that get elected - the problem in the US isn't the politicians, it's the public.