Will the Democratic Party collapse if they don't embrace Bernieism?

[Person Man]

What exactly do you mean by 'collapse'? Because there are a lot of people who might find the word 'collapse' adequate for the party's current state.

If you mean collapse as in the party might disappear - then just stop there. Questions you might have whose hypothetical outcome is the party ceasing to exist should by default be answered 'won't happen,' unless you have a viable and plausible theory already. This is because parties are extremely durable, and have survived much worse than the Democratic Party's current predicament.

I definitely don't think that the Republican brand will become universally accepted or that their party will become truly popular in the near future but eventually in this polarized environment, if the Democrats keep losing, eventually they will just give up, right?

A lot of Democrats just before the election in 2006 were suggesting that if they couldn't even win the House, there would simply be more very liberal Congresscritters going the way of Bernie and becoming Independent or Green. I even heard Charlie Cook say something to the effect that if they didn't win the Senate, they were going to fire a bunch of people and if they didn't win the House, they would "go the way of the whigs". In effect, I could see that if the Democrats lose both 2018 and 2020, and especially if the Republicans are able to pass their legislative and judicial agenda and still aren't very popular, that there will be a lot of Independents running in 2022 and Dems might endorse an Independent for President in 2024.  

I was hearing a lot of TEA Party folks saying that if their wins were kept to a minimum in 2010 that there was "going to be a revolution".

[Person Man]

A lot of Democrats just before the election in 2006 were suggesting that if they couldn't even win the House, there would simply be more very liberal Congresscritters going the way of Bernie and becoming Independent or Green.

I mean, that would be silly. Why abandon the Democratic Party for a party that is even less successful (by far)? Lots of people have these dreams and fantasies of making other parties relevant, but besides an election or two at the state/local level, they hardly ever make a difference. Our system is built for 2 parties, and the Democratic Party is simply too well known and too ubiquitous to be supplanted. It could happen, but it would have to be some cinema-esque situation that just comes together perfectly "against all odds," as the trope goes.

I even heard Charlie Cook say something to the effect that if they didn't win the Senate, they were going to fire a bunch of people and if they didn't win the House, they would "go the way of the whigs".

Pundits and professional prognosticators love saying that stuff. I still stand by my point that both parties have been in worse situations and still toiled their way through hard times. Look at the post-Civil War era - the Democratic Party was a minority party at the federal level for almost 72 years, and while they had some success in the House and a few odd wins here and there in terms of Senate majorities / White House, it was mostly bleak. Republicans got hollowed out during the New Deal and they still bounced back. So yeah, comparatively, the Democratic Party isn't in that bad of a position.

I have a good feeling that by 2019, people will be singing a different tune. Republicans had an often-unpopular Democratic president they could milk for midterm waves, and now the shoe is on the other foot.

The dems did pretty well between 1876 (first post reconstruction election) and 1896 (McKinley). They went 2-3 in presidential elections and did pretty well in the Congress.

The McKinley dynasty was sustained because TR had a Moderate Hero reputation that broke up the GOP. Democrats had at least some influence that way. The only time the Democrats were locked out of any influence at all were the 20s.  

I am not saying there will be no Democrats in 5 or 20 years but hopefully that there will be a viable brand and platform with a new leadership if the Democrats don't deliver next cycle.