I guess this is your core conclusion in discussing the presidential races:
"It does no good to ignore the system and work as it if doesn't exist. You either change it or work with what you have."
Sure those dysfunctional electoral and political systems... the EC which would take an amendment to abolish (or try to negate with the Popular Vote Interstate Compact which I assume may never happen... or if it does, will fall apart as soon as a state is forced to vote against its people) and it's a terrible dilemma. And arguably we got the Bush and Trump Juntas because Dems (can't expect the GOP to push for democracy) never laid the groundwork for true democratic reforms in the past. Contrast the Dem's actions with the far Right which in the 70's... spurred by the Powell Memo, developed a multifront, coordinated strategy to turn America into Amerika. It's why we have Alec, Starve The Beast and massive debt, those Orwellian Right think tanks, The Federalist Society and the politicization of the courts, the War on Labor, the defunding of the Dems etc.
The Dems simply have not have any corresponding offensive and in large part I've never in the past 40 years seen the Dems have any long term vision of where they want the US to be in 20-50 years... and without a vision there simply will be no strategy to get there... in this case finally making the US into a democratic nation. I've never heard Dems EVER push for what seems to be a core democratic value... that each persons vote should weigh the same in terms of representation on the federal level. It's court mandated on the state level http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/377/533.html even if it's lack of civic equality in the vote because of state suffrage now has given us Trump and a GOP Senate. After Bush 2000, the Dems responded by trying to game the system with the Popular Vote compact while not giving ANY thought to a more strategic, long term plan. And granted I've not heard the Green do this either... but they have no power.
Our very dysfunctional electoral and political systems created and perpetuate a two party system and since we can't count on the GOP to ever want to reform a system that works in their favor... that falls to the party that DOES have power, that DOES claim to value democratic principles, and that DOES have the most most to lose in an antidemocratic system. In that context I can't blame progressives who get frustrated with the center, center-right nature of Dems.
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