Your bio says you were a NH state representative, which surprises me, because in my experience you overestimate the power of the DNC (I won’t argue with you that it’s corrupt in many ways) and underestimate the inertia of the Democratic Party at state and local levels. Now theoretically, state and local officials don’t take sides during a primary, but if the leaders at the state and local levels had done an adequate job of recruiting, educating, and energizing new members for the last two decades or so, then Sanders might have had a better shot at the nomination than if the DNC had been impartial. And both he and Clinton (depending on who got the nomination) could have defeated Trump in the electoral college as well as the popular vote. We would have also seen victories instead of losses in 2016 statewide and local elections. Progressive victories in 2018 are a drop in the bucket compared to what should have been a tidal wave against Republican policies.

We are paying so much attention to the Biden-Sanders-Warren-Yang-etc. media-fed circus (“Who’s making the cut?” “Sanders complains about a crying baby!” “Biden makes another gaffe!”) that we fail to notice that Democratic leaders at the state and local levels are asleep at the wheel.