New Progressive Party

2016: After a hard fought campaign, Bernie Sanders goes before the delegates of the 2016 Democratic National Convention to give his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, while also calling on his supporters to continue the fight for the progressive agenda. Clinton wins easily in the face of a chaotic and broken Republican party that is split between two factions that do not have any love for moderate conservative politics.  Many conservative donors begin abandoning the Republican party for the Democrats, causing Clinton to run to the center in the general election and driving a sense of buyer's remorse among Bernie Sanders' progressive coalition. Clinton and the Democrats are not complaining as the shift in support gives them the means to win a majority in the Senate and achieve one in the House after moderate Republicans begin abandoning the party.

2018: Unemployment in the US continues to decline as the baby boomers retire, but the shrinking of effective demand continues to drive a perceived "Wealth Gap" between rich and poor. Progressive and populist third party challengers begin unseating incumbents in the Midterms, many of whom are registered independents or Democrats, given the lack of options in party politics. America is effectively a single party nation.

2020: Hillary Clinton sails to a second term virtually unopposed. The Democratic Party, fearing splintering from its conservative and liberal wings, changes its nomination rules to prevent a third party challenger. Bernie Sanders, now semi-retired on the lecture circuit and hosting a new show on MSNBC, rails against what he and many other progressives see as an undemocratic process. Clinton remains a popular figure among the majority of the country thanks to a full employment economy, cheap credit (which offsets the income gap somewhat), and her leadership in the face of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

2024: Four Democrats vie for the Presidency including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Mitch Landrieu, and Martin O'Malley. No candidate gains the required 270 electoral votes to win the Presidency, and thus the election moves to the House of Representatives, which votes for O'Malley, despite him trailing behind Warren and Landrieu. Progressive Democrats scream in the face of what they call a sham election, and break off to form a new political party in the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt's original Progressive Party.

2027: The US economy goes through the worst market crash in living memory as the Housing market collapses and with it the entire investment banking sector. Public disgust with the O'Malley administration leads to a swell of support for New Progressive Party candidates promising  real reforms to healthcare, public housing, and immigration to restore effective demand and meet social service needs.