> So, if I've got this right, the Tea Party isn't a party in the sense
> that it's seeking a separate party line on the ballot.
No, of course not. It's called the Tea Party to evoke the Boston Tea Party. For most of them, no pun is intended.
> Is the political form we've be looking for? Is that what the left
> ought to do? Start a Medicare-for-All Party inside and outside the
> Dems? And have meetups and see what happens?
I've long thought that when the time was right, the left/progressives should start a party within the the Democratic Party. It would be based at the state level and participate in single-issue campaigns like the Labor Party does - but also recruit, endorse, and support left candidates in Democratic primaries. It should make reform of the electoral system a litmus test for any candidates it considers supporting, so that it could one day exit the Democratic Party and strike out on its own as a viable separate party.
SA