The Democratic party is about to decide whether it lives or dies. It’s unclear if party officials are aware that this is the decision they’re making as they begin the process of selecting the new chairperson for the Democratic National Committee, but make no mistake: this is life and death for the Democrats. There is too much rage, too many wounds, too much resentment about the way former chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz treated the party’s progressive base before resigning after her Charter-violating manipulations were exposed by the DNC leaks, only to see the same deceit and manipulation continued when she was temporarily replaced by acting DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile. Progressives will not tolerate another pro-establishment DNC chair who will perpetuate the party’s despicable internal politics. Strike three, and they’re out.

Former presidential candidate and Sam Kinison impersonator Howard Dean announced his bid for the job this morning, tweeting “The dems need organization and focus on the young. Need a fifty State strategy and tech rehab. I am in for chairman again.”

The “again” in Mr. Dean’s quote is there because he has been the DNC chair before, from 2005 to 2009, before he was replaced by Wasserman Schultz’s predecessor Tim Kaine. Rather than try and keep this embarrassing flaw a secret, Dean has been openly talking about the fact that he was one of the people who helped make the appallingly corrupt DNC what it is today. In an interview with Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC, Dean boasted of his experience with the position, saying he’s more qualified for the job by virtue of the fact that Democrats took control of congress during his term, and the fact that he’s got nothing better to do.

“I am very interested in the chairmanship of the DNC,” he said. “Not so much because I think I’m the only person who can fix it, but I think we need a full-time chair.”

Dean was referring to his main competition for the job when he said this, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison. Dean’s argument, apparently, is that the problem with Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s term as DNC chair had nothing to do with the fact that she deceived and cheated the American people, but was because she had too much work on her plate due to her concurrent job as a Florida Representative.

Right, Howie. That’s the problem. Debbie was so busy with her job as congresswoman that she couldn’t give sabotaging the Bernie Sanders campaign the meticulous attention it needed. How much more comfortable could she have made America’s billionaire plutocrats and Saudi Arabia’s princes if she hadn’t been tasked with all that mundane legislative business?

Sanders, by the way, is one of the political powerhouses who has endorsed the aforementioned Keith Ellison for the job. The other is soon-to-be new Senior Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

Unlike Dean, who was endorsing a Hillary Clinton run for the presidency as early as 2014, Ellison had his ear to the ground and knew where this country was headed. He had the foresight to be one of the first Representatives to endorse Bernie Sanders, who would surely have destroyed Donald Trump in the general elections had his campaign not been sabotaged by the very people responsible for ensuring a fair democratic nomination process.

Ellison also predicted a long time ago that Trump stood a very real chance of becoming the Republican nominee, back when the idea was thought so ridiculous that it caused the shills on ABC to laugh right in his face when he said it. Check it out:

Might post this every day for the next four years pic.twitter.com/PYktCi8Vxt — Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) November 11, 2016

As we’ve discussed before, having our finger on the pulse of America’s zeitgeist is an absolutely essential component of winning future Democratic elections. In 2016 the DNC ignored Sanders’ extremely accurate predictions about what would happen if the party ran an establishment candidate, and by sabotaging his campaign at every turn cost their party not just the White House but any hope of regaining the Senate and the House as well. Ellison has shown that he possesses this insight. Dean has shown us that he does not.

And yet, with the entitled attitude only a multimillionaire white man can pull off, Dean has said that he has contacted not just Sanders but also Ellison himself to explain to them why they’re wrong about the congressman’s capacity to lead the party.

A quick glance at Ellison’s impressive resume reveals that he has a consistent record of support for progressive ideals, and that he is, at a time when unity is desperately needed, also the only Muslim in Congress. He’s so far to the left on some issues that even a few progressives might squirm a bit, like his support for reparations for the ancestors of slaves to help close America’s gaping racial wound, but that’s a good thing. If the catastrophe of 2016 has shown us one thing, it’s that the Democratic party needs a good, hard shove to the left, and putting someone who’s pushing the envelope a bit at the helm could definitely help do that. It also ensures that Ellison won’t be rigging any elections for establishment candidates anytime soon.

ZACH IS A HERO. GO ZACH! DNC staffer screams at Donna Brazile for helping elect Donald Trump https://t.co/102IWweoSV @HuffPostPol — Collin Del Cuore (@collindel) November 10, 2016

Another possible out-of-left-field candidate for the job that people should really be discussing is whoever the DNC staffer identified only as “Zach” is in this article by Huffington Post, who apparently had the guts to literally scream at Donna Brazile at their first staff meeting since Clinton’s loss.

“Why should we trust you as chair to lead us through this?” the young man asked, according to two people in the room. “You backed a flawed candidate, and your friend [Wasserman Schultz] plotted through this to support your own gain and yourself.”

“You are part of the problem,” he correctly yelled. “You and your friends will die of old age and I’m going to die from climate change. You and your friends let this happen, which is going to cut 40 years off my life expectancy.”

How about that, huh? I’m just tossing this out there, but whoever this young hero is should be rapidly advanced up the DNC ranks, even straight to the top if possible. There’s the voice of a true non-establishment leader with a grasp of the urgency of the progressive agenda.

At the very least, we progressives need to find out who that man is, give him a medal, and encourage him to run for president someday.

We’re watching you very, very closely DNC, whoever your choice may be. Don’t blow this one.

[Featured Image by Paul Sancya/AP Images]