>Everything this party does is to NOT LOSE.

Pretty much. They're afraid of what using political power will require from them, and so what they've offered to us is a gradual erosion of union power; a gradual increase in the influence of the financial sector; a less vocally aggressive destruction of vulnerable people abroad. All during a historic growth in power for the executive branch.

So when we ask why we can't have good things, they'll point to the looming threat of a legitimate fascist movement and say "do you want that?"

Obviously, we do not. But when they come together and work harder to fight against a popular, well-articulated left agenda than they ever will against any individual conservative threat then it's probably time to stop being suckered. They'll never share this party with us. Getting something new of our own going will take decades, and will waste the careers of the assembled talent we have right now - which is small but stronger than it's ever been. The best option is to keep working to take this party for ourselves, and then offer its (clearly substantial) right wing the same deal they've offered us for decades: join us or enjoy your increasing marginalization.

In the short term, that means treating a setback like a setback and not as a disaster. Sanders is (still present tense) a chance to hit fast forward on this movement decades. That's a relatively low-risk proposition if we can avoid despair. And though I hate, hate, hate appeals to the power of positive thinking, that's kind of the move today. Every inch that we can push them and every explicit promise we can extract to dislodge capital from its grip on American politics is worthwhile.

But I'm a gloomy person so thinking positively is difficult for me. So in my case that will mean remembering that voting is just the stone in the stone soup of American politics. It's what brings us together, but it's not in itself anything that makes soup.

If somebody's reading this and nodding at that sentiment, please check out your local DSA chapter (https://www.dsausa.org/chapters/). It's not everybody's cup of tea, but most of these branches are full of good, warm people who are doing the sort of work that you can touch and feel. In DC, that means canvassing tenants to let them know their rights when threatened with eviction or working for local rent control or showing up at deportation profiteers' homes and making sure their neighbors know that they make their money off of breaking up families. I did that one a few times and even though I am a tremendous 'fraidy-cat, it was *good*. Other chapters do free brakelight clinics so the cops have one less way to pull you over. This isn't a big recruitment press, because I know that joining shit isn't for everybody and calling oneself a socialist isn't for everybody either. But if you have a set of principles that prioritize making sure that ALL poor and working class people can live their lives with freedom and dignity, then you're my comrade (sorry, I had to drop it in there once) in this. And I remember the last time I felt this sense of political despair, but the resolution of "cast a vote" was alienating both temporally and metaphorically and joining up and doing something with people who felt the same way felt really good.