> Rather than "giving up" on the Democratic Party, as you say leftists
> should have done in 1979, I would suggest taking it over and moving it
> to the left.
The Dems aren't a party so much as a brand-name or a merchandising operation, so there's nothing to take over. It'd be like trying to take over a marshmallow. (It works the other way, too: it's precisely because US parties are so hazily amorphous that the oiligarchy can run amok.) What *is* worth pushing to the Left is the labor movement.
-- DRR