In addition to the aforementioned factors, the recent turnover in the state Dem apparatus hits two key pressure points of Atlas brain–fear of "big Twitter progressivism" rooted in #populist nostalgia and fear of a truly inclusive movement, and mourning the decline of machine politics less critically than it behooves oneself to in a way that pigeonholes the objects of their clientelism as noble savages who shouldn't transcend it–leading to this sort of motivated reasoning in hopes of "reclaiming" something that never really existed as such.
(The people talking up the WELL-OILED REID MACHINE always seemed to be vaguer on the bit where the machine actually delivers, however corruptly, for the voters it needs to hold power)
