Reply #221: agree

[wial]

but does this mean the left has to inject ideas from another party, forcing the dems to co-opt them? worked for the Greens in Germany for a while, maybe it can work here. After all, Ralph Nader wrote most of the positive environmental legislation since Teddy Roosevelt.

It would be frustrating to set up a third party only to have its best ideas absorbed and attenuated by a centrist party like the dems, but maybe that's what has to happen now. After all, the dems are far to the right of US and world opinion on actual policy issues even if they aren't as far to the right as the 'pukes. That means they can afford to steal ideas if someone else makes them politically consequential and forces their hand.

Canadian style health care is a matter of life and death for a lot people, and a solution to climate change is a matter of life and death for the planet. The dems alone can accomplish neither. They're going to have to be forced by people who care more about the country than about winning elections.