The declarations of the death of the Democratic Party seem pretty premature.

I know that many people demand the death of this party. Those who lost the election, those who backed the party’s candidate, and those who ran the party’s fundraising apparatus during this process have been roundly blamed and shamed for their loss.

But there is no viable alternative for the bulk of the Democratic Party’s membership at the present time. The Greens consider at least half of the Democratic Party to be too “neoliberal” for their liking. The same demographic is considered much too “socialist” for the Libertarians’ liking. The same goes even more so for the Constitution Party. So existing second-tier political parties are not viable.

The Green Party at the national level has marked much of their political culture with both an adherence to environmentalism and historically-marginalized identity politics (in the true sense of the word) as well as a strong, visceral hatred for the “corporatist” Democratic Party and its candidates. The Green Party also did not welcome those in their own party who supported Bernie Sanders over Jill Stein, even going so far as to publicly undermine Sanders supporters and promote Stein at Sanders’ expense. This hatred for Democrats makes resources and recruitment scarce for the Green Party, but it gives a veneer of “integrity” to their party.

But what would the Berniecrat Party – the party of the bluebird – adopt as their party culture? What would be the topic which would color the existence of Berniecrat activists?

The Greens have environmentalism and socialism. The Libertarians have “liberty” and the free market. The Constitutionists have dominionism. What hobby horse do the Berniecrats have?

It seems as if Berniecrats, isolating as they are to the Clinton supporters who voted for her in the primary, would struggle to form their own national party culture separate from existing center-left parties like the Democrats, Greens and the even-smaller Socialist Alternative.

Even the Democratic Socialists of America – a very pro-Bernie outfit – doesn’t run candidates as a party, but operates as a non-profit organization. The DSA likely don’t have the structure or the motivation to organize as a political party, and I notice that the organization’s chapters are largely based in bigger cities and college campuses.

Speaking of bigger cities, I think being in an urban or rural area also counts greatly on the viability of a left-wing third party. I can imagine that the Greens’ deep-green environmentalist image would help in some rural areas if promoted more effectively, even if deep-green environmentalism is divisive in regions where the extraction of natural resources for profit is of great economic importance.

But you’ll hardly find an open socialist in the sticks. You won’t find a fan of Marx and Castro in the sticks. And enough of the population lives outside of metropolitan areas to live in the rural spaces privileged by mechanisms like the Electoral College.

So Berniecrats who want the death of the Democratic Party need to offer a sustainable alternative which transcends divides like urban/rural, race/class, minority/majority, etc. and give a strong, enduring reason for why it is viable to vote for Bernicrats.