Primary season is where progress starts

Third parties always sound tempting, but honestly, trying to build a whole new one just isn’t going to work right now. The Spoiler Effect is real - remember when progressives split off in past elections and ended up handing the win to conservatives because our vote got divided? That’s not just a scare tactic, it’s math. The Democratic Party isn’t perfect, but that’s exactly why people like Zohran Mamdani in New York, David Hogg in Florida, and Omar Fateh in Minnesota are out here running as unapologetic progressives - not just playing nice with the establishment, but actually challenging it and getting media attention because voters are hungry for change, not more of the same. If we want real progressive wins, we have to show up in the primaries and actually support candidates like Mamdani, Hogg, and Fateh. Go knock on doors, talk to people, get loud - that’s how you build power. The establishment pushes back hard, but that just means they see a real threat. Organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Working Families Party (WFP) are already building independent power while still using the Democratic ballot line to get progressives elected. That’s the playbook - build a movement inside and outside the party, not just hope a new third party magically appears and saves us. Honestly, this is how Trump took over the Republican Party. He faced massive resistance from the GOP establishment, but their voters kept showing up for him, and now the whole party moved with him. We need that kind of energy, but for progressives - not just talk about third parties, but do the hard work to help progressives win from within. If we don’t, we’re just handing the keys to the same corporate crowd, over and over. I’m so over it.