Thank you for this diary. Like you, I have a great respect for Adolph Reed, not so much for cultural gadfly Ishmael Reed, but I cannot agree with him here. There are two areas in which I think I can add to what you have said above.

About Mrs. C.: OK I claim white female privilege here in that I , and other white female never Hillary voters, know who and what this woman is. I must have known dozens like her, the basic main street clubwoman. Women such as her can be found in any city or sizeable town, I believe Phyllis Schlafley is another such. They can be recognized by their visibility, their seizing of leadership roles wherever they go, their almost total incompetence in carrying out the duties of leadership, their constant intriguing and back stabbing, their relentless pursuit of power, position and wealth and their complete lack of principle. It was reported in 2008 that Hillary told her campaign staff that "I can't control Bill"; I think it might be more accurate to say that Bill can't control her. Other characteristics include marriage for purposes of social advancement, allowing the husband/Ken doll to pursue his pleasures elsewhere, and the surrounding of herself by a circle of girlfriend ( and occasional boyfriend) acolytes, who are as selfish and unprincipled as their patroness.

With regard to Hillary herself, there is also the shocking lack of taste--c.US$200,000 spent on a "designer" wardrobe--not even a pretense of buying from American sources--which looks like US$200,000 worth of 70s leisure suits in colors not found in nature-- no notion of deportment or conduct--Miss Piggy in designer threads-- and her let them eat cake reveling in all manner of luxury, expense and fancypants events. Yes, this matters because a President H. Clinton will be representing me at home and abroad.

The thought of president H. Clinton gives me nightmares. The Democrats, I am WFP, expecting to be able to shove her down our throats is a bridge too far. Not to mention that she flat out stole the nomination.

Second point is that I think the Green Party is fine by itself. There need to be parties of conscience. I would like to also see, in addition to the Greens, a revived Farmer Labor party, and maybe other small to medium parties, whose purpose would be to help keep the duopoly honest.

About Clinton supporters among the minority communities and their accusations of privilege, I would simply say that voting for civil rights, against militarized police, and so on, clearly the right thing to do, and beneficial to all, is one thing, but voting for various patronage rackets, on either side of the duopoly, is something else again.

Upton Sinclair used to call the Republican and Democratic parties two wings of the same predatory bird. Gore Vidal once said: "We have no political parties. We've never had much of them, I mean the Democrats, the Republicans. We have one party. We have the party of essentially corporate America. It has two right wings, one called Democratic, one called Republican."

Sinclair and Vidal both hit on an important truth: The areas of commonality between the two mainstream parties is far, far greater and more important in its impact on public policy than the relatively few and minor areas of difference. Both party hierarchies are fully committed to exploitative, predatory capitalism, and to an oligarchical form of government. Not to mention reckless and belligerent militarism, and the maintenance of an American empire. And of course the embrace of a militarized police force and the surveillance state.

With the Left effectively neutered, there has been nothing to prevent the political center of gravity from moving continually to the right, a process that will surely continue under a Hillary Clinton regime. Given that there is always some scary Republican bogeyman to compel "responsible" liberals to embrace the supposedly lesser evil Democrat, doesn't Reed's real thesis amount to promoting the idea that the current system is the best that can be achieved for the foreseeable future, so one had better learn to accept it and be grateful for the fact that the US has not yet descended into full-fledged fascism?

As Jill Stein has stated time and again, embracing the lesser evil now all but guarantees the greater evil will prevail in the not too distant future. And we have the evidence of this before our eyes. It's time - long past time, really - for those who draw their political inspiration and ideology more from Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas than from Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman to finally say "Enough." Enough of enabling one evil for the purpose of staving off another. Enough of pretending that the two dominant wings of American politics are not both attached to the same malignant creature.

The Left in America cannot and will not become strong unless and until it is able to see the Republican and Democratic parties not as the Greater Enemy and Lesser Enemy, but merely as the Enemy. Because such "leaders" as Hillary Clinton, Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Trump, Ryan, McConnell, et al, and those who enable them, are just as much the enemies of justice, of economic security, of freedom from foreign and domestic threats, and of a livable world and sustainable future as any Nazi storm trooper or bomb-toting Islamic terrorist. In fact, their capacity and willingness to do great evil probably exceeds either. We who oppose them will become strong once we start responding accordingly, not before.

Check this Power to the People talk by Ajamu Baraka:

13 Ways of Looking at the Deep State
by Chris Floyd

Deep State is a Terror State, Torture State,
Tyrant State — and it’s OK with that.

Deep State was formed to bodyguard elites,
keeping their dominance ever-refreshed.

Deep State doesn’t care what you advocate,
just as long as you toe the unsaid line.

Deep State is cold, lacks true affect;
hates only that which hinders it.

Deep State fences the range of opinion
like a cattle baron stringing barbed wire.

Deep State loves culture war, stokes all sides,
thrives on strife, the bitterer the better.

Deep State is not in full control; it just
knows which way it wants the world to roll.

Deep State kills the leaders it doesn’t like;
a lesson our leaders learned long ago.

Deep State doesn’t care if a whistle’s blown;
it already holds the reins of ‘reform.’

Deep State enjoys the horse-race hoopla,
voters vexed by the vetted and the duped.

Deep State’s wars have no other aim
than to keep our masters’ coffers in coin.

Deep State doesn’t mind blowing up the world,
if the world won’t do what Deep State wants.

Deep State is Red, Deep State is Blue;
Deep State don’t give a damn for you.

Social movements grow slowly until "critical mass" is reached. no one knows what the critical mass will be in American politics and I don't think anyone else does. Even the mightiest empires have cracked because of initially slowly growing opposition. FEED the opposition. My flavor of opposition is Green. As Teddy Roosevelt Jr. said on D-day when discovering his division had landed on the wrong beach: "Let's start the war here!" We need more TR Jrs. And I hope they are Green.

Particularly now.

Why the hell do I care if it is safe for the democratic party for me to vote a certain way?

Actually, the more I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that the only "safe" vote is one that prevents Clinton from winning.

If it looks close in Florida I may indeed vote Trump, but if not it's Stein.

Burn the Democratic Party to the ground is my opinion, we don't need two right wing parties, particularly not one that lies and pretends it's the party of the people. (Well, corporations are people, so maybe they actually are.)