I generally agree with you, save 3 points:
1) first, I realize I’m in a minority here, but Im very skeptical about the salience of ideologies as a motivator for voting behaviors.
2) I don’t see Clinton era “triangulation”in terms of ideological shift but a reordering of who was important to the Democratic Party. College graduates and professionals became more important, and non-college skilled labor became much less important.
3) College graduates and professionals are generally progressive on social issues, as were the Clintons by 1992 standards, and gradually that posture became the center of the party.
But that’s my whole point about the progressive reordering of Democratic Party priorities.
The Democratic Party was successful when it was a coalition built around protecting the class interests of middle class and working class families, and included a majority of those who also wanted to advance various social justice causes. But the social issues weren’t litmus tests or at the center of coalition building.
From 1992 to the present moment, that order gradually reversed- the Democratic Party is now a coalition orbiting around a grab bag of required social issue positions, and also includes the class interests of working people as long as they aren’t problematic and don’t try to run for office or go to the wrong college or work in the wrong industry or …