They’re going to tank the progressive candidate regardless of whether or not they run as a Democrat.
True, which is why it’s important to have a free hand to fight back. It’s a lot harder to attack the Democratic Party as the hopelessly corrupt institution it is from the inside than from the outside. It’s easier to organize as a third party than as a group of individuals in a big tent organization that wants you gone, and that way you can take more radical action and use more radical rhetoric than when you’re in one way or another beholden to the party apparatus. For example a third party would be able to do things like organize protests, civil disobedience and strikes (which should be a hallmark tactic of any self-respecting leftists opposition party), attack establishment Democrats for being sellouts, run even when party sabotage tanks your primary campaign, put a whole organization’s weight behind favored candidates rather than individual endorsements and play hardball when you don’t get your way in government like centrists like to do so often. Of course splitting the vote under FPTP can lead to Republican victories, but with smart risk control this can be mitigated at less cost than cooperating with Democrats. Now technically most of these things can be done even as part of the Democratic Party, but they just aren’t, so founding a new party with principles and organization conductive to leftist action will result in a generally more effective party apparatus. Meanwhile trying to take over the DNC certainly offers a more attractive prize, but it comes with a whole spider web’s worth of strings attached.
True, which is why it’s important to have a free hand to fight back. It’s a lot harder to attack the Democratic Party as the hopelessly corrupt institution it is from the inside than from the outside. It’s easier to organize as a third party than as a group of individuals in a big tent organization that wants you gone, and that way you can take more radical action and use more radical rhetoric than when you’re in one way or another beholden to the party apparatus. For example a third party would be able to do things like organize protests, civil disobedience and strikes (which should be a hallmark tactic of any self-respecting leftists opposition party), attack establishment Democrats for being sellouts, run even when party sabotage tanks your primary campaign, put a whole organization’s weight behind favored candidates rather than individual endorsements and play hardball when you don’t get your way in government like centrists like to do so often. Of course splitting the vote under FPTP can lead to Republican victories, but with smart risk control this can be mitigated at less cost than cooperating with Democrats. Now technically most of these things can be done even as part of the Democratic Party, but they just aren’t, so founding a new party with principles and organization conductive to leftist action will result in a generally more effective party apparatus. Meanwhile trying to take over the DNC certainly offers a more attractive prize, but it comes with a whole spider web’s worth of strings attached.
Do both. People on the inside bolstered by support from outside groups. We are Legion. We can execute such a strategy.