I agree with Maisano that without Bernie Sanders and the spotlight of an election, democratic socialism would still be irrelevant. It struggles on the brink even now, but it has found a place in American electoral politics, no matter how marginal it may seem (it's near impossible to win a presidential primary, so maybe local politics is a better target).

I was struck by Maisano's comments on base-building, which i have always considered to be a questionable strategy to gain real power:

In the end, the base builders will likely find themselves trapped in what the Welsh Marxist Raymond Williams called “militant particularism”: a localized and narrow pattern of action that, whatever the tactical or rhetorical radicalism of its practitioners, cannot be generalized into a broader political movement.

I thought that was very well said and agree that whether people like it or not, "working-class organizers will continue to use major party primaries so long as they exist and bear fruit."