[video:https://youtu.be/ThY52oL-S5I]

In the beginning, this is what would happen. You would have the Democratic candidate running for something, and the Republican candidate, and historically Vermont has been a Republican state - moderately Republican, not right-wing - and the Democrats, and then we had a third party.

And what would happen is, debate after debate, television program after television program, the progressive, third party people, would in fact get the best response from the audience. And people would say, "Yeah, you guys make a lot of sense." And then you go up to them and say, "Are you going to vote for us?" And then they say, "Oh, of course we're not going to vote for you. You can't win! We're going to vote for the Democrat. You're a much better candidate - everything you're saying is true. But we can't waste our vote." "Waste our vote" was the expression. So if there's any term that drives me crazy, it's this quote unquote waste our vote.

Now my own view - and it has been my view for many, many years - is that what we need in this country is what Jackson calls a Rainbow Coalition. But it has to be done outside of the Democratic Party.

Of course, these remarks were made 25 years ago. Perhaps if there had been a Republican presidential candidate at that time as toxic as Donald Trump, Sanders would have disavowed his call to abandon the Democratic Party. Then again, perhaps he would have pointed out that it was the putative left's unconditional support of the corrupt, pro-corporate, anti-working class Democratic Party that gave rise to right-wing demagogues like Trump. One thing is for sure, it would be fascinating to witness a debate between the present day, 74 year-old Bernie Sanders and his 49 year-old counterpart. Personally, I think I like the earlier version better. The arguments he made in this video seem, if anything, even more compelling in 2016 than they were in 1991.

#JillNotHill