Political Party Divisions: A Tale of Two Feuds (VIDEO)

Interesting, but I don't think comparing the divisions between the Democrats and Republicans works that well.

Even after the booing of Ted Cruz last week, it's clear that the Democrats have been way more divided. Frankly, Monday's convention looked like things were about to blow.

Oh well, see Cathleen Decker in any case, at LAT, "What's at stake in the Democratic and Republican family feuds":

If nothing else, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention showed that family feuds are not solely the province of the Republican Party.

Party stalwarts arrived onstage only to be treated dismissively — loudly so —  by many of the delegates. That followed a second day of protests by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the second-place finisher, who was booed by many of his own backers for suggesting they should cast their November ballots for the winner, Hillary Clinton.

That followed Florida delegates yelling at the party’s chairwoman, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, on Monday morning, contributing to her decision to cancel her convention appearances.

“Brothers and sisters, this is the real world that we live in,” Sanders had implored his supporters as they booed.

Real world or not, it should come as no shock after the campaign season America has witnessed that chaos has been visited upon both political parties as they seek to put their best faces forward in four-day television extravaganzas.

But the lines of division are not the same in each party.

Republicans saw last week that their party has been taken over by Donald Trump, the real estate impresario whose improbable campaign defeated more than a dozen candidates who, in more normal times, could have found success.

Trump channeled the economic and cultural concerns of Americans who felt spurned by more traditional Republicans, attracting them with bombastic words and spraying insults across many voter groups.

He succeeded to the point that delegates to his Cleveland convention roundly booed when his second-place finisher, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, failed to endorse Trump, saying that people should vote their consciences.

The Democratic problem is the opposite in many ways: Rather than taking over the party, many supporters of Sanders here remain on the outside, protesting. They do so despite his dramatic successes in winning votes, raising money, successfully liberalizing the party platform and contributing to the deposing of Wasserman Schultz, who will leave her post at the conclusion of the convention, months before her term ended.

Both feuds also look very different outside the convention halls...

More.