But I'm sincerely asking you -- if you had 20-40 wildly dissatisfied Democratic/Progressive bloggers at your disposal -- and you were convinced third party is an awful idea -- and that they need to work within the Democratic Party somehow -- what do you think would be the highest and best use of their time, collectively?  Is there something they could do as a group, using their power, albeit minor, on the Internet blogs?  Or would you just counsel them to disband, and go work on individual campaigns in their district?  Just give me a two or three line plan?  If you have one.  (Sometimes things don't sound like they would when spoken/written -- but my tone here is one of honest inquiry -- because I value your insight and would love to evaluate your plan for "us" versus some of my own crazy ideas).  I think you might have the best idea.

P.S.  -- I just got word that there may be an alternative in MI-08.  Something that gives me great joy.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir. At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" -- Boston Attorney Joseph Welch, taking down Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Yes, indeed, but the great danger, if the left doesn't find some kind of progressive populist to rally around, inside or outside the party, the right WILL produce a populist demogogue, then the "fascist-lite" we're living under could easily become the real thing. We're at one of those historical periods where EVERY institution: businesses, the press, religious institutions, the military, law enforcement and political parties are badly compromised and corrupted. This corruption is interlocking and self-reinforcing.

The Republicans were a third party. They eventually replaced (the Whigs, iirc, {and I'm too lazy to look it up}). The Constitution doesn't FORBID more than two parties, but the structure within it is biased toward compromise and consensus, which is easier to forge w/ two parties. There are different crystaline forms that ice can take, but the overall conditions bias water into assuming only a few of them. The two party system precipitates out of our Constitution in much the same way.  

There will be no change w/out an independent progressive movement. The right changed the Republicans that way. They were NOT welcome in that party when I was a kid. Now they own it.

I am 100% willing to destroy the Democratic Party for '06 & '08 in order to build something better in the long run. I think the current party is too broken, too corrupt, too comfortable w/ 2nd place to change. Even if it "wins" nothing will change. The entrenched leadership fights nearly every attempt at change, and has all but forbidden primary challenges. Without those contents, there will be no growth, only continued stagnation.

Look at the lonely fight Russ Feingold is fighting over the PATRIOT Act. The cowards in his party abandon him over and over again. Yet the question of privacy, both from the government and corporations, is a HUGE issue with many Americans. It could be the kernel around which to build a winning progressive agenda, yet Vichy Dems like Reid, Schumer, Hoyer, Emmanuel and Clinton(s) will NEVER seize it. They ALL are too tied to the current system, especially the military industrial complex and it's wife the energy/petrochemical industry.

No one wants to say it, but Nader turned out to be right.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott