Michael Goodwin: Michigan Senate race displays the radical ‘shift’ the Democratic Party has taken

In the run-up to Michigan’s hotly contested Democratic Senate primary last week, a slew of headlines declared the showdown a “fight for the party’s soul.” As cliches go, that wasn’t a bad one. Leaving aside the issue of whether a political party has a soul, the framing worked because the candidates represented starkly different positions, backgrounds and styles. The outcome would thus reflect the party’s emerging values and agenda in a key swing state. And so it did, but in a way that simultaneously makes Michigan look bad and illustrates how radicals are gaining the upper hand in the national...