I am not a Bernie supporter but strongly believe we need a third party. The mess we are in right now shows how bad the 2 party system can be. But, that party should not be an extreme party but a moderate one. Extreme right means votes taken away from the conservatives (which would be great now) and too far left takes away our chance to defeat the sicko DT.

51% of Sanders' supporters are idiots.
Vote for half-glass-full Joe Biden.

Half of Sanders' base would "consider" supporting a 3rd party candidate doesn't translate into half of them voting for a 3rd party candidate. More credible and relevant surveys I've seen suggest about 1 in 4 progressives won't vote for Biden, whether or not they vote for anyone else. Even those who buy the "lesser of two evils" argument now see the Reade allegations as sufficiently problematic that they don't want to risk voting for a rapist just because he's "our" rapist. Some of us take #MeToo and #BelieveWomen seriously, and hate rape culture.

Progressives are on the horns of a dilemma here. On the one hand, the Democratic party is clearly morphing into what the GOP used to be while the GOP is now the party of nutjob proto-fascists and theocrats. This means progressives are not welcome in either party unless they are willing to be subsumed into the cult of incrementalism, and maybe not even then.

On the other hand, Duverger's Law tells them that in a non-parliamentary democracy like the US, a 3rd party is a sure path to never ruling at the national level. The Green party for example has been around for 30 years, has exactly zero representation in congress, neer mind they have won exactly zero Presidential contests or even come close. This principle was cemented in the 1920s and beyond by the gradual introduction of new structural barriers to reform candidates. So we can't expect even the degree of success at the national level seen by the likes of Eugene Debs in modern times. And remember, Debs ended up jailed for the (trumped up) sin of discouraging people from signing up for military service.

The counterargument is that providing some kind of home for progressive activism can deny the Democratic party needed cooperation from a broad base of liberals until they either quite excluding them or perhaps the GOP implodes enough to allow the Democratic Party to take up the banner of the right and a new Progressive Party to step into the power vacuum and become the new party of the left -- as the Republicans did when the Whig party collapsed nearly 200 years ago. Given the intransigence of "moderates" in the party I see only the 2nd scenario as the possible one.

Personally I think the urgencies of environmental and economic collapse don't grant us the luxury of time anymore. There is no time for this to play out over the next election cycle or three. If Sanders had won in '16 and we were 4 years into his "revolution" we might just squeak by. But with a right-leaning Democratic candidate with serious baggage who will pivot way right of any expressed Dem platform as soon as he ekes out an election victory (IF he does), that option is now foreclosed. The oligarchs own both parties and that isn't going to change via polite political engagement anymore. Battle lines have been drawn.

So we are facing a dystopian reality where the system collapsing under the weight of its own unsustainability is what we have to contemplate. The only way out of this mess is through it.

The exact form that collapse will take is hard to predict in this volatile situation we find ourselves in. There are too many interacting variables: the environment, the economy, Trumpism and the craven lengths it's willing to go to to hold onto power, the looming mental health crisis arising out of all of this, and more, and that's not even taking into account the trajectory of the pandemic. It's hard to see tipping points on the approach path or to know exactly when it goes off a cliff -- particularly when approaching multiple tipping points.

I see from the various comments that there are lots of different ideas floating around concerning our great country and where the situations of the day are leading us. I'm 77 years old, and the longer I live the more confused I become when trying to sort out the truth of national problems and weigh all the news items about what's happening in our world. With the upcoming election, the Covid 19 troubles, accusations against Biden, the idiocy of Trump, Russian interference, and everything else screwy in our world, I cannot trust ANY source to furnish me with what I consider valid information on any item. Most all news media are owned by big corporations (if my info is correct) which means they each have an agenda, financially inspired, I'm sure, so where do we turn to get info which we can use to make correct decisions? Larry in western Kentucky (Home of turtle-neck Mitch "let the states go broke" McConnell

I’ll preface my comment by saying I was raised in a cooperative apartment complex, a neighborhood built on the notion that when we combine our resources, everyone in the community is better off than if we looked out only for our own self interest. It was an enclave of Democratic Socialism, with most identifying as Democrats, Liberals, even some Socialists and Communists. I have been a lifelong Democrat.

The article that asks the right questions. For example:

Trump won the Midwest largely by attacking NAFTA, and other trade deals that have proved to be a disaster for the working class. So why would you line up behind one of the people most associated with pushing those policies in Washington?

We all know, or should know, that the Democratic National Committee is a private corporation. It is not beholden to Democratic voters. Its bylaws allow it to select nominees irrespective of the will of the people. That is not an opinion, but a fact. Google it before you push back on this fact.

In the face of public opinion that overwhelmingly supports, for example, single payer health insurance over the current private for-profit system, the DNC puts its weight behind an anti-single-payer candidate. Why? Answer for yourself, but understand that the DNC is funded by corporations who benefit from the status quo.

Yes I have supported Bernie in both election cycles for his lifelong commitment to racial, social and economic justice. I’ve seen the masses of people who’ve been energized by his message, by his candidacy, where Hillary Clinton and Biden’s supporters have been courted by a not-Trump sentiment. Know the masses whose lives were untenable for decades are not moved by a candidate who promises only to restore decency and civility when their very lives are unsustainable.

Ummm, where are you getting that 50% number?
And please name one thing the Green Party has done except ask for money....ever?

That’s probably somewhere below the percentage of his supporters who did the same nearly four years ago.

Democracy, or Democracy in the USA? There’$ a big difference … and it’s not russian interference..

The Sanders supporters I know are slowly coming around, this time. As politically sophisticated as they’d like to believe … it’s downright sad to know better

You know, in a functional democracy, it should be 100% of everyone who considers a third party. All voters ought to at least give some consideration to each option from each party before making an informed decision.

Morons

Well it looks like the more Americans who die the better we stand on getting trump out of WA DC. YIKES!
Notice I said WA DC - he will make such a stink and the media will be all over his rants like white on rice, we will wonder if there even was an election.

That's not going to happen. 51%? No way!

I read the article and still don't know why the second most popular candidate is expected to win.

The bigger problem is why our rigged two party system continues to rule. Until that is sorted out any third party vote is still, sadly, just a spoiler vote. Sad but true. In that case see you in 30 years time when the damage wrought by another four years of a conservative Christian backed minority parriah is finally starting to be behind us.