The shebeen is closed temporarily on the general subject of the Democratic presidential nominating horse race. The two candidates are so close on 90 percent of the issues that, as they say around the backstretch, you can't shine a flashlight between them. The other 10 percent of the issues are made up of an unstable compound of butthurt and outrage that has exploded the whole thing into uncharted and fantastical political realms and I choose not to vacation in any of them.

One thing I will talk about is how to keep the legitimate populist concerns of the Sanders campaign alive.

And, no, I don't want to talk about it.

But one thing I will talk about is how to keep the legitimate populist concerns of the Sanders campaign alive and thriving within the Democratic Party absent the candidate himself. This is to prevent a repeat of what happened between 1982 and 1990, when the Democratic Party handed itself over so thoroughly to the money power that it made the current unpleasantness completely unavoidable. The way to do this is for the Sanders campaign to repurpose itself to the task of getting people who share its policy ideas and political philosophies elected at every level of the party and every level of government.

That's why I think the smartest thing Sanders has done in the past two months is to come out and clearly support Tim Canova, the progressive candidate who is running against Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the mysteriously still-employed chairman of the Democratic National Committee, in a Democratic congressional primary in Florida. And, as ABC News has found, Sanders has jumped into this race with both feet.

"We're doing this because it is too late for establishment politics and establishment economics," Sanders wrote in the joint fundraising appeal, which had the subject line "Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz." "We need real change. We need U.S. Senators, members of Congress and state legislators who have the guts to take on the big money interests whose greed is destroying the American middle class." Canova, a longtime progressive who opposes Wasserman Schultz's support of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, welcomed Sanders' support in a statement Saturday. "Like Senator Sanders, I'm running a campaign that's truly backed by the people, not big corporations—one that stands up to Wall Street interests instead of cozying up to them. Together, I feel confident that our campaign of nurses, teachers, students, seniors and working class Floridians can work together to demand accountability from our leaders, and offer a more positive path forward to the people of Florida's 23rd district," Canova said in a statement.

It's hard to argue that DWS doesn't deserve a primary. From her support of the vampiric payday loan industry, to her sub rosa support for her Republican colleagues in Florida, to her abysmal performance as DNC chair, she's infuriated sufficient numbers of Democrats to warrant Canova's opposition. The fundamental questions being contested in this year's Democratic primaries has remained unchanged since Bernie Sanders got up on the shores of Lake Champlain and announced that he was running.

Is the institutional Democratic Party capable of being the party opposed to the dangerous increase in the money power in the country?

And is it the vehicle through which our politics can litigate and punish the crimes that nearly destroyed the national economy?

Andrew Burton Getty Images

Those questions are still open ones. The Canova campaign is one of the very first campaigns in the country to try and answer those questions at the polls. This is what the Clinton people have said Sanders should do, now that his chances of being the party's presidential nominee are barely even a shadow.

Here it is, then. Have fun.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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