Can this quasi-third party define the future of American leftists?

Their biggest obstacle might be their own name

Bernie Sanders has opened up the conversation on the left.

PHILADELPHIA - Long before there was Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, there was the Working Families Party. Just like Sanders, a longtime Independent contesting the Democratic Party nomination in an effort to push the party left, the WFP is a quasi-third party that works half-in, half-out of the Democratic Party to advance left-wing policy.

At a WFP event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Tuesday, several party functionaries and elected officials discussed their efforts to capture some of the momentum opened up by Sanders' extraordinary electoral success. It was a fascinating look at one effort to steer American politics to the left.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.