Now that the Republican Party has basically Whigged itself (Whig–v.  The act of a political party to render itself irrelevant in the political discourse soon to be replaced with another remade political party), the Democratic Party has absorbed a lot of people with ideas that are far from Progressive.  The “New Democrats” that have fled the Republicans and joined with the Democrats are showing themselves to be anything but progressive.  Politically they are looking fiscally moderate and socially conservative.

With the moderates taking over the Democratic party, does this signal a left-shift in the public discourse?  What I really want to know is if there's any hard data to support a shift in policy.  Or have we just changed the identification of all but the hardcore of the right wing to “Democrat”?