Update and Why a Third-party Candidacy Doesn't Have to Help the Republican.

First of all, we reached 250 signatures in less than a day with relatively little effort. There is clearly a lot of support for this idea, and the reasons why are clear. More importantly though, I've received a lot of expected and totally understandable feedback about why Sanders running third party hurts progressives more than it helps, so I felt it was important to address the issue. The conventional wisdom is that if a third-party candidate runs, they will "take away" votes from a more viable candidate who holds similar views, and this will help the opponent this candidate's supporters dislike the most. However, there is actually a lot of reason to believe a third-party run by Bernie wouldn't help the Republican candidate. The first that comes to mind is the fact that in a general election, the two of them have a lot more negative things to say about Trump, or whoever the opponent is, than each other. They've already made their cases against each other and have yet to truly fight against the Republican. Imagine a three-way debate in which Hillary and Bernie team up on any Republican candidate. He would be demolished every time. Sure, they would still attack one another, but not with much that hasn't already been said before. Second is that those opposed are starting with the assumption that Sanders would be the "spoiler" rather than Hillary if it came down to it, when all polling about the general election indicates otherwise. It is worth waiting to see which of these candidates does better among the general populace by October before writing off one of them. One of the two left-wing candidates will be in a better position by October, and at that point it will be worth pressuring one of them to drop out in order to prevent a Republican president. That is, of course, assuming, that the Republican nominee is doing well enough to be a threat at that point anyway. Trump has the lowest approval ratings among all the candidates by far. He would have the lowest in history. If it were a three-way race between Trump, Clinton, and Sanders, it could very well be that Trump is the one who is practically eliminated early on because he is simply too unlikable. And, say the candidate is someone other than Trump, it would be somebody running for a party that didn't truly vote for them. This would almost certainly mean a third-party run by Trump as well, which would make it a race between at least four potentially viable candidates. Finally, what we are witness right now is the death of the Republican party. We have been a two party system for a very long time, but the two parties in power have changed often. With the death of the Republican party, we have the opportunity to raise up another. Let it be a party led by Sanders rather than right-wing extremists like the current GOP. The really important part is this: There is not necessarily any real harm in Sanders continuing on for at least a little while, and it could likely even help bring the Republican nominee, and potentially the entire party, down.