Frustrated Progressives Should Look to the Republican Party

What have we got to lose?

Progressives have tried over and over again to take over the Democratic Party and return it to the worker-oriented engine for economic justice that it was under FDR.

They have failed.

In 2004 Howard Dean famously claimed to represent “the democratic wing of the Democratic Party”. He was destroyed by the DNC and the Media when he started to win. Sound familiar?

Eugene McCarthy, Shirley Chisolm, George McGovern, Jerry Brown, Gary Hart, Paul Tsongas, Bill Bradley, Howard Dean, Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders — all our progressive champions were beaten, laid low by the Democratic establishment either during the Primaries or during the General Election (in the case of McGovern); or were compromised and turned into neoliberal moderates post-election (in the case of Obama).

We need to try a different approach, to find another Party to transform. And in a country ruled by a political duopoly, that means we need to take a good hard look at the GOP.

Before my friends on the left start condemning me as a heretic, let me say that I have been a die-hard Bernie Sanders supporter since 2015 and a democratic socialist for much longer than that. Indeed, my appreciation for social democracy stems from having spent half my adult life in western Europe, where I have witnessed first-hand how a decidedly capitalist economy can not only survive but thrive in a society that incorporates the ideals of…