>The far-left may scoff at the relevance/influence of a HRC or
>Obama to the general population... but within the party I bet
>they function like a senate. There's probably a whole shadow
>whip operation "just" among the SDs.

This can be both true and indefensible. If that happens, how do Democrats continue to tell voters that their view actually matters? And when they find some way of doing that, why should anybody listen to them?