Liberalism melding with conservatism does not represent some new basis, however unstable, for centrist politics. The left can has to stop looking at the democratic party for anything, because it will not change. It is wrapped psychically around a pole of people who cannot hear the footsteps as they are upwardly mobile urban middle class home owners. And those kids are alienated from the democratic party, but less so than the ones who didn't win the lottery. They're just going to tune out if they cannot vibe with the cultural residence of the reactionary status quo and be consumed by it.