Given a side-by-side look at people who call themselves “Democrats” now (Texas candidate you mention great example) and truly progressive Ds from a few decades back, the older ones much more resemble Bernie than today’s iterations.

One example among many: A State Representative in small-town Western Pennsylvania (where I was raised), Bill Shane, was a truly committed progressive in terms of civil rights and social justice in a place with both a history of abolitionists and of fascist/KKK activities. A Harvard grad and U Penn-trained lawyer, he ran for state house and served in the 70s when the local swimming pool was still segregated and worked hard for social justice there and as a Borough Councilor and County Commissioner as well. He was remembered by R colleagues as having worked across the aisle to get things done and enormously well-liked. He was a truth-teller and a pragmatic politician, to hear it told (was a friend of my dad’s).

Now in that state legislature, one of the most venal and corrupt (miserly towards children and libraries; full of largesse for frack-daddies) and hate-filled in the nation (stiff competition these days, I know) his own party would shun him if he could even get elected in the first place. The Rs moved further and further right and the do-nothing Dems let his seat rot for years, not bothering to run even a ham sandwich on the ballot. This allowed former State (R) Rep Reed (D62) to collect whopping contributions from banks, fracking companies, insurance companies &c and distribute the loot all over the state since he didn’t have to campaign to win re-elections, leading to his rise to Speaker. The results were not pretty for ordinary people in that county, where over 25% of children live in poverty, where broadband access was often scarce, where the radio station is a “Fox News Corner of the World,”where my classmates don’t have access to decent dental care and have succumbed to opioid & other addictions in huge numbers.

One cycle a clever, brave political science student at the local college (IUP) ran for the seat, only to be given the cold shoulder and NO support by do-nothing Dems who thought he was too progressive. I assistant managed his campaign and on a budget of about $1K we got him 34% of the vote, but the complete lack of wisdom, support, and help from his own party was astonishing. (Went out of state to work closely with Kucinich snd will likely have a distinguished career in politics after grad school.)

Mad as a wet hen after that, I planned to run for that seat in 2020; do-nothing Dems laughed or told me it was a bad idea (checkered past) and put up a Blue Dog, retired Penndot double-dipper in response. Not wanting to remain in a party like that any more, I planned to run as an Independent after the closed primary season ended. Would have been great to debate the R Reed successor and the double-dipping old blue dog on the radio and get in a few cracks about frackers buying politicians and our lack of teeth and addiction problems in the 62nd.

However, Pandemic interfered (taught in NYC, lived in PA, commuting by train) since I didn’t want to become the Typhoid Mary of Western PA, I dropped out and got an Air BnB to be closer to work in NYC, little realizing it would be years. So it wasn’t Rs who ran my political aspirations as a progressive Social Democrat down, it was the entrenched Do-Nothing Ds.

If Hillary is a feminist icon it should be on her own merits, but she lost places like my native Western Pennsylvania by being the wrong sort of candidate (“perfect” for liberals/elites doesn’t play among Appalachians; corporate coziness doesn’t play among progressives; foreign policy horrified many) and taking the vote for granted - she canceled events in the final days of the 16 campaign and Trump ADDED stops in the general area (WPA-OH-WV culturally similar).

Fast-forward and we’re looking as you said at a perilous party divide in which social dems are alienated from machine dems/corporate dems and we are the only thing standing against pure fascism unbridled in the US. Sobering. If anyone can figure out what to do, though, I firmly believe it will be Professor HCR and that we, her Ragged Irregulars, will take up arms against a sea of foes and save our relatively young experiment in democracy, the USA.

( In the meantime, I’m running for Congress in NY’s CD 10 if I can get 1500 signatures in a week to get on the ballot…a small miracle or a lot of grassroots efforts should suffice to do that. Help an Irregular out by asking a friend to ask a friend to download a petition and get a signature? Www.LauraThomas.nyc)