As the world burns

Listening to your 1/10/18 broadcast was as usual interesting and informative. However there was a segment I take exception with. You guys maintain that there is a major difference between the two Parties today and I agree. I do not however believe that was always the case, but thats another discussion. You go on to use this premise as a rational for continuing to “hold your nose” and vote for the Democratic candidate. The idea is you have no real chance to change the system except to work with in it. Again I agree, but working within the system can occur in may different ways and it does not mean you have to vote for only the candidates that two parties offer. I believe your wrong about having no choice but to vote for either a democrat or republican. Bernie Sanders played the game your describing. He registered as a Democrat because, as you stated, and rightfully so, he would not of gotten anywhere running as a Independent, he would ended up like Ralph Nader. And like Ralph Nader, it was not because he was not a good candidate without good ideas and good policy, but simply because this part of our democratic system is broken, not just rigged but broken. Unfortunately this part of the system happens to be the cornerstone of our democracy. Sanders knew this going in, but where he made his mistake was he gave away his power when he committed to voting for the democrats primary winner. What he should of done was waited to see how the primaries evolved before deciding what strategy to take. When you consider the behavior of the DNC and Wasserman, the revelation of the collusion between the Hillary camp and the DNC to undermined Sander, and the ultimate hijacking of DNC campaign money by the Clinton camp how can anyone say this is a candidate or party worth supporting. What Bernie could of done is said enough is enough. I’m leaving and taking my “army” with me, as a third party candidate. A bold move. Would he have won, I don’t think so, and he would of also paid the price in the Senate. Clearly the wonderful dems would of stripped him of any senior Senate positions he held. He would of been told like any recalcitrant schoolboy to go sit in a corner. However, if Bernie followed through, what you would of had was, I believe, millions of people who understood that Democratic primaries where not about saving the Democratic Party but fixing a broken system. I believe if that happened you would have now a strong independent group, millions, who be willing to challenge the Democratic Party leadership in a much stronger and aggressive way than has happened thus far, in part because I believe people would willing to say, its not the Dems we need, they are not going to save us, we need, want and actually is have real leaders with principles and we are moving forward with or without you. I think this would of proven out in Bernie’s very strong showing in the presidential race. The point is we could have had a strong third party ( it does mean the candidate would win but it would be a catalyst for systemic change) in 2020 with a candidate you don’t have hold your nose for, but someone who believes in the same message Bernie preached. Keep in mind Bernie gave HRC a run for her money, so to speak, and he did this without the support of the Democratic party to put mildly. He also did it without any promotion or help from the MSM, it fact quite the contrary. Pie in the sky? Remember this was real and it happened “overnight”. If you guys think is some wishful thinking or magic wand waving, then I suggest, with all due respect, you get out of your little studio and start paying attention to whats going on in the world. With the all powers that be against him, including the Democratic Party leadership, the media, the donor class, Wall Street etc, Bernie was getting 20,000 thousand at rallies while Hillary was getting 6,000 and Trump was paying people to show up. People are tired of these two parties for good reason, they are craven and corrupt. The idea that we have to keep voting for bad candidates because we don’t have any alternative simply is defeatist, lacks imagination, and myopic. Barack Obama won because it was believed he was going to change things. We were wrong about him. But we are still right about needing fundamental change. Trump is awful, so awful he is in a category by himself in terms of incompetence, and as President he has set an awful tone for our country, but he isn’t the one that sent us on this road heading for the abyss, we did that when we stopped paying attention and believed all we had to do was hold our nose and vote.