Democratic Socialists or main stream Dems. We've been electing "main streamers" for over 50 years and for

[B.See]

96. Many good points herein. And while

I'm inclined to disagree with the main premise of the op re. what Democrats have not done, I do understand where the frustration (in general) is coming from.

Personally I'm not as concerned with labels, those we assume or those others would thrust upon us, as I am with positions and actions.

I'd written awhile back that I'd long considered myself a liberal, until I one day took an online test that determined political classification based upon a set of responses. To my utter surprise, it classified me as a progressive.

I'd also written, back then, that I believed maga was the cause for that. As I believe they are, for the groundswell of support and turnout we've seen of late.

Because these aren't normal times, and this isn't just a contest between ' conservative' ideology and liberal.

We are in a fight against a cult of extremists who'd eliminate us, figuratively at least, if not literally... if they could.

And so one might logically argue that every extreme authoritarian, and unconscionable action they undertake in lurching ever farther to the right,

via abuses to the rights, safety and welfare of individuals and peoples, via abuses of power

lends legitimacy (if not urgency) to an equal and opposite reaction to such abuses. And people have, perhaps, grown weary of what many see as a tepid response. I know I have.

As I've also tired of the divisiveness, the squabbling, the second guessing. Of those who need our candidates to meet some purity test, to check our every box. Tired of hearing who can't or shouldn't win

and from those who'd seek to divide us on behalf of and in the service of warmongers, despots, and dictators, at home and abroad, who use us as a means to further their own agendas.

We need unity.

I want to support winners, those who generate enthusiasm because it's important for us to WIN. I don't care what they call themselves nor especially what they are called.

Magas and warmongering despot dictators like Trump & Co. will trot out the well worn labels: socialists, communists, because it's what they always do. While they double down on hate, intolerance, supremacy, and fascism.

If being against all of that makes one a 'socialist' then so be it. It's what they called Dr. King. And in that regard, not bad company, I think.