Joining the Green Party (GP) en masse may be seen as similar to coming here from TOP. The main difference, of course, is that the GP is a political party that has tried to directly influence national policy rather than indirectly reporting, commenting on, and discussing it. It has a larger membership that has held true to their beliefs through 16 years of mockery, approbation, guilt tripping, and shunning. I would imagine that the current membership feels that they have earned the right to determine their party’s priorities and direction. While those may be largely in line with ours, it would be surprising if they matched well enough to avoid tension and, perhaps, the feeling that THEY are being taken over. It is good that their Presidential candidate has approached ours for we have much in common. It seems to this writer that any progress beyond that point would begin with a canvassing of the GP membership to see how far they are willing to go. I know that I would expect that from my party if I was them.

Creating a brand new party has the glowing attraction of instant gratification. Boom! You got it. All things are new and there are no old things to deal with. In the past, this has always required a solid leadership in place before the birth: someone to coalesce around, sign the necessary documents, establish (!) an organization, settle differences. And then you are another third party trying to demonstrate enough market share to become viable. Counting the cost is one thing, assembling the votes is quite another. It seems to me that a third party is not worth the effort unless it starts on Day One with a least 35% of participating (if not eligible) voters. This would be around , what, 35 million? If the current split is 30% Dem, 30% Reepo, and 40% Other, then that would mean starting with at least 40% of the Dems and 55% of the Other. The Dems would be crippled.

Then there is the Tea Party (TP) model of taking over from within. They took over their party in three years district by district in regions of rabid rw partisanship. In addition to advocating for Bernie’s Way in progressive regions, Bernie has demonstrated a model that might well work by selectively primarying party leadership (think DWS in Fla) through bombarding that district with phone banking and small donations from outside. Some districts will be more vulnerable to this technique than others, of course, but if it happened 30 or 40 times, then it should encourage some current House members leaning towards Bernie to declare with them. That might well be enough to send the message…it did to John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi is a keen observer. On the national level, a vote is, after all, a vote. Tell the truth now, wouldn’t you like to look out over Hillary’s sea of blank stares and hear their slack mouths chanting over and over again: “Ber-nie….Ber-NIE...BER-NIE!!”? I know I would.

I am not advocating for any one way over another. If my writing suggests a preference or a bias, then it is not definitive. I will go where this progressive movement can be continued and built upon until every single change that Bernie has suggested is enacted into law.

I believe that the now or never moment will be here before we know it. It always is.