When Joe Biden first ran for Senate in 1972, 40 percent of Democrats believed that whites had a right to segregate neighborhoods. Today, he seeks the presidential nomination of a very different Democratic Party, one that is increasingly progressive, diverse and well educated. …
Today, the Democratic Party is in transition. Over all, it is roughly divided between its past and its future, and split about evenly between white voters with and without a college degree, between voters older or younger than age 50, and between self-identified liberal and moderate voters. The fairly even splits make it hard to argue that any particular kind of factional candidate, whether a moderate or a democratic socialist, has an inside path to the nomination. CONT.
Nate Cohn, New York Times