How do you know when America is on the road to MAGA?  When the Democrats are devouring each other like the rabid jackals they are. 

One year into Tom Perez’s project to save the Democratic National Committee from complete collapse, Democrats are beginning to dig out of the hole left by Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s mismanagement, Barack Obama’s indifference, Russian hacking and the bitter rivalry between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders capped by accusations of election rigging. 

But going into a midterm election that should be the Democrats’ to lose, the DNC is still struggling to bring its feuding socialist and communist factions together and assert itself.  Throw into the mix powerful super PACs, the much-better-funded party committees focused on Congress and governors, and more independent voters than ever, and many wonder whether Democrats have a place at all anymore. 

“I knew it was a turnaround job when I ran, but I undeniably underestimated the depth of the turnaround job.  We had to rebuild almost every facet of the organization, and equally importantly, we had to rebuild trust,” Perez said in a recent interview at party headquarters. “ Not just people who had invested in the DNC, but others — they just felt the party had let them down.” 

It’s hard to overstate the scale of his task.  The DNC has become every frustrated Democrat’s favorite piñata, and a symbol of everything that went wrong in 2016.  Sanders-Clinton hostilities have taken on a new form: The tension now is over whether Sanders should hand over his massive voter list to the committee, as Perez has asked, and whether the committee has gone far enough to overhaul internal rules that Sanders forces are convinced rigged the nomination for Clinton.  Neither side is satisfied, and words like “crazy,” “still doesn’t get it” and, in one case, “Judas” are tossed around to describe people in the opposite camp. 

The relationship between Perez and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the former rival whom Perez named deputy chair in an attempt to ease tribal infighting, remains chilly, with periodic explosive fights over party strategy and appointments. 

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Most of the DNC’s officers and members have coalesced behind Perez.  Meanwhile, fundraising is still trailing far behind the Republican National Committee. 

The committee is trying to forge ahead even as it remains saddled by factionalism.  The war between Sanders and Clinton has morphed into a battle between people who believe the Vermont senator needs to actively participate in an institution that’s changing to accommodate his demands — and those who believe the DNC should just be grateful Sanders and his allies are helping it change. 

The dispute largely revolves around Sanders’ massive email list: The DNC wants it, but Sanders has no intention of handing it over.  The Sanders line is clear: No way will he be providing his list or any other information to the DNC, as Perez has asked, or pitch in otherwise to an organization that he is demanding be reshaped.  To the Sanders orbit, it’s not nearly enough that Perez backed the recommendations of a yearlong Unity Commission set up to revise internal rules that Sanders supporters argued disenfranchised the base. 

CLICK HERE to read more details of the Democratic Party implosion on Politico. 

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