Very well written and thought out. Thanks for writing it.

I've watched the left huff and puff for 40 years. What have we accomplished? Not a GD thing. We had something working when we took out Lieberman, but big dog showed up and bought up all the bloggers. That is when Netroots became an event instead of a movement. There are a couple of Bernie or Bust groups on FB that can't even agree on wtf it means.

What I believe is that Liberals Are Useless. Nothing is going to change. We have a genuine candidate who actually supports people over money, and we can't even beat the system to get him elected.

My option is to apply for dual citizenship and to pack up and leave the country. I don't see it on your list.

A backdoor so to speak would be to vigorously campaign for election reform. An election reform movement could get wide ranging support all across the county. Many republicans want election reform. The approach of their leaders has been to suppress votes but I believe rank and file repubs just want fair and honest elections. People want honesty. For regular people honesty knows no party. People will vote for politicians even if they disagree with some of their policies if they perceive the candidate to be honest. It begins with the election process and the election process itself is the first and crucial step to an effective government (real or perceived). It is far easier to have and promote government solutions to problems if the government is perceived as effective. A non-partisan election reform effort could gain big momentum, especially now. If we were able to have things like same day registration, voting holiday, more expansive exit polling, mandatory voting machine audits, hell I'd even be willing to go with id verification if some of these other ideas happened, then the amount of people brought into the voting process would dramatically increase. Confidence in the election process would build. This would either force the two parties to serve the ever growing voting population or would open the door wide open to other parties or policy coalitions.

There was wide-ranging discussion in Alphalop's post: http://caucus99percent.com/content/i-hear-lot-people-talking-about-boyco... .

I'm going to just cut/paste my comment from that diary instead of re-working it to fit more neatly into your concerns, Borkrom.

There has been much discussion here over the last several days about the general questions of 'Where do we go from here?' and 'How do we keep this movement alive until we can develop into a meaningful political force?'

I came up with an idea -- or maybe it's just the seed of an idea -- that could (I think) allow Sanders supporters to unify and move forward no matter what happens with the elections from here forward. What I'm describing below is a mechanism for unity and forward action, with the content and direction to be determined. See what you think.

http://caucus99percent.com/comment/67020#comment-67020

Had been thinking I'd vote Green in Nov if HRC is the candidate. However, just learned that The Green Party closed up shop in my state in 2013. The only parties that will be on the IN ballot in the Fall are GOP and Dem. (And a quick read of the steps its takes to get a new party on the ballot looks like it would take about two years to accomplish.)

Of course, I can withhold my vote -- but that will only show up as 'decreased Dem turnout'. I would prefer to use my vote so it shows up as a vote *somewhere* -- as it would if I could vote Green.

Can we -- the Sanders' 'WE' -- come up with a way of corralling all the 'can't vote for neo-liberal Dem Party' votes in one place, so that WE show up as a solid contingent of actual votes lost by DNC/HRC? Ideally, this would include being able to track votes (and voters? or numbers only?) to their state/counties, with top Dem Party members (at Fed, State, County levels) being emailed with details saying 'Here are the numbers of votes/voters who refused to support the current incarnation of the Dem Party. If Sanders had been the Dem candidate, all these numbers would have been yours.'

I may not have articulated this well. I first had that thought in a comment here a couple of days ago, and it continues to feel like a good idea to me. So let me try to develop it a little.

Imagine that (say) MoveOn starts a campaign to collect all the voters (or potential voters) who would vote (and/or have voted) for Sanders, along with some of their demographic data -- State, County, age, gender (widely defined), current Party registration (if any), usual voting history, areas of particular political concerns (these last as lists with 'pick all that apply'). Also include (for GE) a question(s?) like, 'If you cannot vote for Sanders in the GE, how will you spend your vote?' with answers like '(a) Dem nominee, (b) Greens, (c) Other, (d) Withhold.

These entries cold be stripped of personal identifiers and compiled into aggregate numbers at national, State, County levels. These numbers could be given to the media as well as sent to Dem Party/DNC leaders with the message that 'These are the voters you will lose/have lost by your treatment of enthusiastic progressive Americans.'

Such a database could be an important organizing tool, as well. It could serve to connect people at the local levels (Counties and States).

(I thought of using Move On for this because they're well-established enough to manage such a large-scale operation, I think. It appears to me that, using Reddit and other social media, an idea like this could be made operational before the Dem Convention. Even if it didn't come together that quickly, I think it would still be a valuable tool moving forward, whatever happens with the nominations/elections.)

I should mention that, in imagining the generation of this tool, I've been calling it the 'Independent Democrat(s) Party'. Why this, instead of 'Progressive' or something else? To me, 'WE' *are* the 'real Democrats' -- the others are usurpers who have stolen our name and have replaced our values with theirs. Our battle, imo, is to introduce our (modernized) traditional values to enough of The People to create a solid, organized base of voters who will bring a renewed political reality into being over time. (And I would see, at least in the beginning, that developing that organized base should take place both within the Dem Party while at the same time developing it *outside* the Party, independently. For example, if we partner with the Greens, we could spend the next two years helping them get on ballots nation-wide, while we concurrently use what we are learning through that process to work out our own platform and work toward getting our own party on the ballot (if the existing Dem Party refuses to change) That would meant that, by the mid-term, 'WE' (the 'Independent Democrats') would be recognized as an organized bloc of voters, and we would have (in the Greens) a viable place to put our votes if the existing Dem Party remains intractable.)

One more note on 'Independent Democrats': Why 'Democrat(s)' instead of 'Democratic'? First, because (to me) it shows a myriad gathering of individuals coming together in support of (modernized) traditional Democratic values. Second, because of the fun we could have contrasting ourselves with the 'Democrat-ICK!' Party.

Just my thoughts.

I bet most of us were rethinking everything after NY. Here is what I wrote at 3am and posted at Kossacks for Sanders.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kossacks_for_Sanders/comments/4fs7g5/whether_pr...

May I suggest another alternative? First, understand that working on the national questions is not only outside of your control, but also not controllable because of runaway climate change already chnaging everything on the planet too fast.

Therefore, I suggest you throw all your efforts into what you can control: your personal resilience and that of your local area - neighbours, street block, neighbourhood.

Work on the practical skills, knowledge, infrastructure, strength of mind, strength of will, resources to make you, your family, and your local groups as resilient as possible in the face of climate change and political chaos. You've already done exactly that by moving to WA. Now, just bring it all home - direct all the anger into resilience right where you are.

I am an impatient fellow, and I think I am in good company here. However, sometimes we just have to suck it up and wait for things to unfold. I sincerely believe Obama does not want a President Trump. I also know Obama is a very smart fellow. I truly believe that things are unfolding beyond public view to make sure Hillary is not allowed to run in the GE. This belief helps me sleep at night right now. I certainly have no inside information, but I am just observing the writings about the FBI investigation becoming more outspoken.

make me excited for Bernie to hang in there until the Convention, or until Hillary can't cover her butt anymore about the email server. If Bernie isn't running for President I will register Green and vote for Jill Stein. I was going to vote for some of the down ticket Dems, but watching Democratic party drones cover themselves in filth and act like their Queen is making me so sick I don't care if the whole slate gets booted. I voted Green in the 2012 Presidential election, and couldn't believe how freeing it was to know my vote went to someone admirable, who shares my beliefs and who is not a two faced lying corporate whore.

I'm 66 year old Army veteran and I have given up on the Democratic party! We need to keep the revolution going! A viable third party that is progressive is the only answer. The Green party is nation wide and the Working Families Party is establishing a national base. They both are progressive, but they are both minor parties. If they combine and progressives join the new entity we will have more power!