Progressives

Looking back, I really don't think Bernie Sanders would have won if he had secured the nomination, what progressives who stayed home for Hillary Clinton that would have come out and voted for him would probably have been balanced by the "moderates" who stayed home, or switched sides, instead as well as more of the right who might have sat out for Trump, but probably would have turned up to vote against a "socialist".

That's water under the bridge now, and it is still worth keeping in mind that the DNC did work a hard as they could to undermine his candidacy, this is because the Democratic party is not really a progressive organization, as I wrote about recently, just a different entity focused on gaining and keeping power. A nicer won than the Republicans sure, but not strictly "nice" as such anyway.

Progressives are still tied to the party if they want to have any say in slowing our descent into fascism, but slowing isn't stopping, so what do we do about it?

I think it is a mistake to try to shove a progressive presidential candidate down the nations throat, and if we do that I think we can do better than an old white guy who has trouble addressing racial issues, is worryingly pro-gun, and has a mini-financial scandal of his own at the moment. I think America is intent on proving that white men aren't really going to fix anything, anywhere.

I think for the next couple election cycles we have to resign ourselves for voting for the less fascist option that the party gives us, while working down ballot to change the party, this of course assumes the country doesn't descend into anarchy and violent revolution, which honestly isn't off the table I think.

The same arguments for why Sanders probably would have lost may hold true as well in contested elections in reddish and bluish states, a true progressive is unlikely to win there and running one may well be giving up the seat, which is going to be a terrible mistake in the next couple cycles, but there are other ways to grow the progressive wing of the party, just as the Republicans have their seats that won't be seriously contested for generations, so to do the Democrats, areas that Clinton won by 20 points in the last election are unlikely to go for a Republican no matter what Democratic candidate is put up, in those places a true progressive can probably find success without risking damage to overall party representation, and the more progressive elected representatives there are, the more control they can have over the levers of power in the DNC, which can go a long ways towards preparing the way for a true progressive presidential candidate.

This isn't exactly advocating "slow and steady" as a course, because I don't think it would take all that long if done right, perhaps two or three presidential election cycles, as a strategy it beats non participation at least.

Alternatively the world burns and we don't have to worry about it anyway.