The right-wing branch crashed the party and now it's not the same. They started screwing with the stereo and now it's either listen to a song I hate or a song I despise.
"Just pick this one, you hate it less!"
"Nah, gonna make like a split and banana. They've got the music I like right down the road."

Jill Stein 2016
There will always be a worse Republican.

That is the point, isn't it. The Dems can be as awful as the awful GOP gives them room to be. We have a two party system with both parties firmly entrenched on the right.

The more room the republicans give the democrats to the right, there will always be a Clinton or Obama to fill that space.

that the exact same phenomenon occurs in the Republican Party. You can right now turn on hate radio, or subject yourself to the ululations of righty pundits and officeholders, and there find people saying, to those among the party faithful who are balking at The Hairball, "but the Mad Bomber is so much worse! worse! worse!" It has always been so. They preached the same fevered sermon four years ago for Romney, four years before that for McCain, before that for George II, and so on, ad infinitum, on into the mists of the past.

That's how they roped people in for the Eisenhower you mention, who was perceived by many as not sufficiently red-blooded to be a true Republican. Of course, as it developed, he proved himself the best friend the MIC has ever had. (Do not be deceived by his farewell address, the work of a speechwriter who had been sidelined during the entirety of Eisenhower's two terms, since his work on the first inaugural address. Look instead at his record.)

Occasionally there is some modest breakout, as with Debs, the Wallaces (Henry and George), Perot, Thurmond's Dixiecrats, La Follette, Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose tantrum, etc. But not often. This year could have been quite interesting, if The Hairball had been frozen out by the Republicans, and instead ran as an independent (or if the Republicans actually followed through with their anti-Hairball candidate), and if Sanders too had run independently. But apparently that's not going to happen.

Initially this was supposed to be the most stupid and boring presidential election ever, pitting two dynastic royal familes against one another (Bush v. Clinton), like something out of the 15th Century. Instead, I guess, it's going to be more like Cromwell vs. the Stuarts. Also titanically stupid. But somewhat less boring.

God bless Bernie Sanders for picking up the Occupy football and shining a bright light on the Democratic cockroaches.

I am currently Going Green with Jill Stein and looking forward to the people's summit and other alternative movements.

The biggest obstacle I see is the issue fragmentation that scattered Occupy's focus. It's gonna be like herding cats.

Some Berniacs will stay to try and reform the Democratic Party. Godspeed, but that won't be me. Many will Go Green and many will insist on a New Progressive Party.

Autonamous action will rule the day while we all scatter in different directions. The chances of all Berniacs gelling around a new unified banner are slim, but the battle is far from over.

Actually, the battle never will be over. I'm hopeful that caucus99% will be one of the sources to hash out new battle plans.

It's always about THIS election and preserving what little we have from the big bad Republicans, while the country moves further and further to the right. Conservatives have been playing the long game for more than 40 years, while liberals have been so afraid of their own shadow that they've settled for whatever they can get by playing defense. The party leadership has exploited the deep insecurities of the partisan voters that want to win with any candidate and by any means necessary.

If you're not willing to take risks in order to stand for what you believe in, you will always end up losing in the long term.

If anything, I think that Obama's presidency has been very illuminating for many of the younger Democratic faithful, in that it has shown that even when Democrats control the White House and the Congress, they still can't (or don't want to) get anything done. Thank god Bernie showed up to expose the party's shell game for all to see.

Did the Republicans move to the right right and drag the Democrats with them? Or did the Democrats move right and push the Republicans further? Conventional wisdom says it's the former, but I'm not so sure. Perhaps the Republicans started it, but once Bill Clinton took the reigns and started using conservative rhetoric as his own, where was the right wing party supposed to go? It's not like they could leapfrog the Democrats, Reagan had already convinced the base that the word "liberal" was something evil. The only place to go to differentiate themselves from the "liberals" (who were actually now conservatives) was even further to the right.

Honestly, the whole thing is sad and mind boggling. I'm convinced that most individuals are good people, but politics is a team sport and you've got to support the team no matter what. Party over policy.

Democrats moved right and Republicans moved further right in response.

Neither party represents me at all at this point. They don't really represent any working person, which is why they are playing identity politics now. "Look! I have the same skin color or genitals as you." As if that means anything important.

We no longer have the choice to vote for the lesser evil, as both candidates are greater evil.

But only one is the greatest evil, because the roots of her corruption go so deep into what used to be the party of the people. Her ties to Wall Street, her support for terrible trade deals, and most of all her warmongering make her by the greatest evil. More so than the racist buffoon.