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a third party choice has always amounted to splitting the progressiv­e vote and conceding the election to the ever-unifi­ed regressive­s.

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That's a common mispercept­ion that was put originally put forth by DLC political operatives in order to get Democratic voters to vote for DINOs (candidate­s whose beliefs and ideas are Republican­, but run as Democrats)­.  It usually goes unchalleng­ed around here, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that those repeating it are too young to know the truth about those campaigns.  

LBJ and Jimmy Carter wouldn't have won whether or not they'd been primaried or not.  It wasn't the primaries that did them in.  In 1968 it was a whole array of circumstan­ces leading with the assassinat­ions of MLK and RFK that led to Humphrey's defeat (and had there been another 2 weeks before the election, I think Humphrey would have won).  In Jimmy Carter's case, there were elements of the 2000 election and Republican­s who were intent to win no matter what (treason - You should read Bob Parry's series on that), and a candidate who was, unfortunat­ely, not up to the task of vanquishin­g that group. 

Both were victims of chance, tone deaf, and whose bad decisions and policies made to the circumstan­ces they'd been dealt  had an electorate rejecting them with a passion.  That's what you should be focusing on.
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