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But what if it inconveniences me even slightly?

Exactly, the country is what we make it, that's what a democracy is. If we do nothing, evil will do something.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

Except that was the whole idea with the Justice Democrats, that got AOC elected in the first place. Remember when she protested outside of Pelosi's office? Seen any of that lately? Remember when she cried on the House floor? That strategy hasn't worked. As soon as AOC got in, she got eaten by the party. I think advocates of the "take over the Dem party" strategy underestimate the enormous institutional pressure party members come under when they enter that bubble.

Luigi for President

Left founded the Labour Party in UK, was excluded by Centrists for most of last century, has never been able to gain political control for pushing radical change since 1945. If you try to make Dems your vehicle, it will destroy you before you reform it. Your plan is a false hope, I'm sorry to say.

I think it makes more sense to found your own political movement. That matters more than parties. Especially in an emergency when what matters is survival not manifesto promises or campaigns for elections that, realistically given Trump's lawlessness and declared intention to reign as monarch and founder of a dynasty, might never happen.

Feed, house, heal each other - Americans already do that, just look at community responses to recent natural disasters like California fires - 'ordinary people' can help each other and often do so better than the government. This is a crisis for USA but also an opportunity for citizens to make an alternative society, invent new ways of working, new ways of meeting needs, inspiring creativity and innovation, creating an economy that really takes care of people instead of making some creep more wealth than he could ever use in a hundred lifetimes. Do for yourselves what the state has failed to do. Build another nation inside the dead carcass of corporate America. Be ready to take over when Trump's coup and the fantasy of representative democracy finally dies. Emerge as a radically different society.

There's no point trying to reanimate the old America when it brought you to this crisis and would do so again in future you ever let it. You need your own Plan 2025. I used to think like you, now I think anarchy is probably the best strategy. Do not gift your power to others, least of all charismatic leaders or political parties dominated by careerists, lobbyists, and corruption. When in crisis, do not carry on as normal. In crisis the best hope of survival is to do something radically different. Science shows, 80% of people cannot recognise a crisis and cannot innovate. You must be in the 20%. Cultivate boldness!

You don't reform the democratic party, it reforms you. It's like a corrupted windows install, you don't use the reinstall windows option from within the corrupted windows, cause the corruption is carried over almost invisibility untill issues happen again. You make a fresh boot drive, and use that outside of the current instance to start fresh. The amount of people it would take to reform the democratic party would be more than enough to start our own parry, one without a history of corruption or full of old guard to sabotage it.

Huge numbers of people eligible to vote, do not vote. I think the hope behind these calls for new parties is that the shy voters would like a change and would vote for a radical alternative in enough numbers to elect the Left into government. I am less convinced that shy voters are just waiting to give their votes to a better party. I think many have given up on representative democracy. The way all democracy, but especially USA democracy, has been privatised means you would still have to get massive funding to run a campaign just for the new party to be noticed by the media, let alone win votes from people not motivated to even bother to register to vote before. Thus your new party has to pander to donors more than its members or potential voters and the old, old story repeats on a loop where the party is just a puppet to wealthy puppet-masters. Old Dems are dead, welcome the New Dems, same as the old Dems.

Thinking things over, I am pretty old, nearly 70, I have recently decided that political parties and representative democracy are not able to deliver good government. Maybe last century they did, sometimes, but there's no way to go back in time. I now believe in direct democracy and some kind of anarchy - my model is life in a small community, everyone knows and trusts each other, agrees the rules on how to run their lives, the focus is on just living each day and being as happy as possible. This society meets human need, in humane ways. We humans need that kind of nurturing. Modern nation states are too big, too complex, admin is too 'one size must fit all' impersonal not to be inefficient and tyranical. Better to live in smaller communities and have more autonomy. Manage larger problems through a wider network of those who share your values, a federation of new city states maybe. Can it be done? Only way to know is to try it.

The Far-Right have smashed the old reality. Their ideas about new cities-states imagine them as kingdoms with absolute monarchs, elites admin, and slaves with no rights, only allowed to live if they generate profits. It is up to each of us to use this cursed opportunity to make a new future different from the dystopia imagined by Curtis Yarvin and his ilk. We have to dare to be free. As things get worse, it will not be a choice but a necessity. Be your own rescuer or be another's slave. Political parties have almost never been our friend, no matter what they say just to get our votes. More of the same is just slow death.

The democrats have less votes because their policies are platitudes and austerity at the expense of the working people and in service to party donors. It's not for a lack of leftist sentiment, as Bernie himself still has quite a bit of a following in spite being independent

If democrats are worried about splitting the vote, they don't have to field a candidate.

I'll vote for a Bernie AOC ticket if it ever materializes but I won't hold my breath. You people keep expecting politicians to save you when we need to be taking a note from the French. Grassroots organization: labor strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience. It's the only thing these leeches understand.

New Democrat motto

This is the answer. Dems are compromised. A new party is needed.

Pick up where Debs left off