Quibbling with cook.

• Author: Conlan, Mark Gabrish
• Position: WE HEAR YOU - Letter to the editor

I agree with every point in Christopher D. Cooks article, "How Trump Can Unite the Left" (February issue), except one: his continued advocacy of useless, counterproductive alternative political parties.

U.S. elections laws and traditions so totally enshrine and protect the Republican and Democratic Parties' monopoly on political power it is simply futile to create alternative parties. It made sense to organize the Green Party in Germany because Germany allows alternative parties to compete for national legislative representation; it did not make sense to organize a Green Party in the United States.

Progressive political parties should come together for a massive collective effort to run progressive candidates within the Democratic Party. Consider the success of the Tea Party and its predecessors (Young Americans for Freedom, the Christian Coalition, and the Eagle Forum). Instead of pursuing the will-o'-the-wisp of alternative political parties, they remained laser-focused on challenging the Republican Party establishment and mobilizing grassroots pressure to push the party even further right.

We need to learn from our adversaries; wasting our time on alternative political parties is one of the biggest mistakes we could make right now.

--Mark Gabrish Conlan

San Diego, California

While I rarely disagree with anything in The Progressive, I must take issue with Christopher Cook's claim about "the progressive majority in this country." I...