Democrats Invoking Palin to Stir Base

This week in class, we briefly discussed pragmatic parties and pure parties. This article from the New York Times makes a fairly strong claim that the Democratic Party's current approach is completely pragmatic. Instead of attaching themselves to any sort of definite ideology, the Democratic Party is instead focused on branding the opposition; thereby leaving themselves as the only viable alternative. They are also strategically painting Palin as the head of the Republican Party, whether or not the Republican Party would agree, in order to appeal to a greater number of voters.