There is definately this trend among the Democrats, and it isn’t limited to the young. This is also seen more in the blogs than in the party organization, but certainly isn’t limited to the blogs. One difference is that many on the blogs have less times to the old special interests and traditional Democratic constituencies.

The problem is that not everybody realizes this change is occuring. That’s what I mean by “If others do not perceive the Democratic Party…” One reason why many seek a third party is that, regardless of where the party is headed, many still see the big government, interest group side of the Democratic Party. Therefore they do not realize that the hypothetical third party agenda may represent the Democrats.

Another problem is that the Democratic Party itself is putting out mixed signals. In 2004 two of the leading candidates for the nomination were John Kerry and Howerd Dean, who are more socially liberal and economically conservative. However at present Hillary Clinton and John Edwards don’t fit this mode (with Obama being harder to peg at this point).

I’m 31, and my experience of Democrats in my peer group is that all of us are in the “leave us alone” coalition, while older Dems tend to be much more focused on big government initiatives. I guess universal health care is one area where we all agree on the goal, but I imagine that the actual details of a plan that would appeal to a 20- or 30-something might seem misguided to a 50-something Democrat.

So I guess my sense is that social liberalism and fiscal conservatism as a Democratic value isn’t so much a blog-driven phenomenon as one of age and demographics. I was coming of political age during the 1994 Republican Revolution, and my generation has been broadly shaped by the anti-government messages of the Reagan and Gingrich years.

We don’t instinctively trust government solutions, but we instinctively distrust the alternative–which is corporate control in a free market run amok.