Exactly. It's a matter of complaining that the train is not moving fast enough so why bother putting more coal into the engine.

I think centrists consider any criticism to be perfectionism and expect perfect lockstep behind the candidates that centrists consider perfect already.

what do you mean the far left? the American Solidarity Party? ANTIFA?

The local spending is exactly the cleaning house that you're talking about.

They're just going to keep going further and further right.

Thanks for sharing that. It was terrible and depressing read, 5½ years in the future.

Because it was never supposed to be about raising money, it was supposed to be about answering the call and running for office in your community to directly impact change, but unfortunately nobody wants to do the work and take on the responsibility of running and holding offices.

I don't/ can't entirely agree with that, primarily because what Bernie was doing was working. Progressives were running and winning nationally, largely supported by the apparatus that Bernie had built starting in 2014. More progressives landed state and local positions nationallly through out that time period, and still, because of Bernies leadership and vision that went beyond himself. In terms of seats, Progressive candidates were competitive with the rates at which more rightwing candidates were winning. From 2014-2022, and still, mainstream (read: neolib & neocon corporatism) were getting eaten from the left and the right. The difference is that when the Republicans noticed this happening, they rallied and used it to fight the left and used it to defeat the Democrats. When the Democrats noticed it, they also rallied and fought the left to the defeat the Democrats.

The biggest threat to progressive populism/ social democracy in this country has never been the Republicans or right. The biggest threat has always been the Democrats, as gate-keepers of the party apparatus and access to national elections. The Democrats preferred a Trump presidency in 2016 over a running popular leftwing candidate. The Democratic party is more invested in the maintenance of the status quo than it is the will of its voting base. To the Democrats, their voters are an inconvenience they occasionally have to service. Seeing as the Democrats are working to lose another election right now with their insistence on running rightwing candidates that don't appeal broadly to their base, it might be time to start worrying about the next fight. Because unless something drastically changes, the DNC has thrown yet another election.

But about that next fight.. Bernie gave us the blueprint. He's shown us how to run successful leftwing campaigns at all levels of government. I'm going to run eventually. Maybe just for dogcatcher, but something. Probably not next cycle but maybe the one after that. I wont be running as a Democrat. I'll be running as an independent but I can assure you my platform will be left af. And just like Bernie, I'm going to speak directly to issues people are experiencing in their every day god damned lives.

*when I say Democrats, I mean party leadership Democrats/ figurehead Democrats, not Democratic voters.

Foreign oligarchs?

I would suspect that Republicans see a lot of losers at the top of the ticket and want to start a fresh new crop. Politics start at the local level - something Democrats should work on.

Both "teams" have well meaning people who aren't insane conspiracy theorists, too, but its not an accident one side has more of those too.

I don't think that's true. As the article points out, during Obama's first term the Republicans built their tea party movement at the state and local levels, while Democrats were primarily focused on Washington. As a result, a majority of state legislatures became Republican controlled, which, I believe, is still the case today.