Over 36 hours this weekend, the country's largest anti-capitalist organization would vote to leave the Socialist International, a mismash of parties from around the world that DSA has been affiliated with since its inception in 1982; to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel (one Congress is now considering legislation to criminalize, a juxtaposition that delighted many delegates; and resoundingly affirm the push for universal, single payer health care as the organization's defining fight.

Given the chance to formally, and forcibly, extract themselves from any relationship with the Democrats, and promote a third party alternative, delegates in Chicago voted overwhelmingly against a call for the senator to establish his own. When faced with the question more broadly, a number of delegates and member observers I spoke to were openly skeptical. "We don't want to end up like the Green Party," one activist mused.

"As a historian and a movement person, I know that when people win, they are motivated, and when they lose, they are not motivated," said Maria Svart, DSA's national director. "So that's a big part of why we think it's really important to take that into account and be really pragmatic and realistic."