Steven, re your "[our democratic system] is still better than all the alternatives": Could be; it has been said before. But to evaluate the truth of that assertion, we would need to go through all the ways different political systems are "good" and "bad." 

Excellent example, re the defenders of slavery and slave-owners' rights, in the first four score and seven years of the American democratic adventure.

As for your "The pro-abortion rights zealots have weakened the liberal coalition," that too would need to be analysed. My feeling is that a so-called liberal coalition that does not care to uphold the dignity and equal rights of women is not truly liberal. And if mainstream Democrats (the subject of the above article) give way on this matter, then there's not much point in a true liberal's belonging to that party.