Michael Lind of the New America Foundation puts his finger on something deeper afoot in the wake of the electoral debacle for the liberal left.

He points to the tension between class politics that animates working class voters in Europe and the US versus the “multikulti” politically correct green politics so much in favor with the Democratic Party elite.

Here is one snippet:

“In general the parallels between the U.S. and Europe are striking. In
the U.S., as in Europe, the right is divided between a pro-business
right promoting policies of austerity and a populist, nativist right
energized by opposition to immigration and multiculturalism,
particularly where Muslims are involved. In the U.S., as in Europe,
the upper-middle-class activists and intellectuals of the center-left
devote far less energy to traditional social democratic issues like
social insurance and the minimum wage than to non-economic causes like
renewable energy, mass transit, the new urbanism, gay marriage,
identity politics and promotion of amnesty for illegal immigrants. On
both continents, conservatism is becoming more downscale while
progressives are increasingly upmarket.”

Why center-left parties are collapsing – War Room – Salon.com.