Progressives storm Democratic primaries

[Jim Lane]

93. "These folks cost us in 16...." -- such hypocrisy.

The argument I've seen ad infinitum is that, if everyone who voted for Jill Stein had voted for Hillary Clinton, then Clinton would have become President. Now we're discussing people who follow the Bernie Sanders approach of running in the Democratic primary and disdaining minor-party politics. That's what they should do.

There seems to be a large body of opinion on DU that progressives shouldn't run in primaries because that divides the party, and they shouldn't run in the general election because that splits the vote on the left and lets a Republican win with a mere plurality. This amounts to saying that anyone who's to the left of Clinton should just STFU and go along with policies they consider too conservative. Well, that just isn't going to happen.

If the Democratic Party establishment goes all-out to make progressives feel unwelcome, then some of those progressives will become so frustrated that they'll vote Green or stay home. That's the path the party can take to leave the House in Republican hands.

Look, if Dan Lipinski is your ideal of a Democratic Congressmember, you're free to support him. Many of us, however, think that district could do a lot better.