First, you have to vote. You have to either show up on election day or use an absentee ballot. Merely being lazy and not voting is NOT withholding your vote. You are a citizen of a democracy, even if the "democracy" is mostly myth. You have to vote.
Second, you have to give the candidate a warning. Either by letter, email, phone call, whatever, warn the candidate that they are not entitled to your vote simply because they are the Democratic candidate.
Third, the reason why you show up to vote, because there is always a good Democrat who needs your vote. That person is somewhere on the ballot, it could be a judge, a candidate for governor, someone running for the state legislature, a county or city office...the fucking dog catcher. Vote for them.
Fourth, leave the box next to the abhorrent DLC Democrat trying to get back into Congress blank. Leave the box next to a certain person running for president who has so many Wall Street connections, it's like she owns JP Morgan, leave that one blank, too. Don't vote for the Republican, either. Leave all the boxes for that office blank. Vote for all the other non-corrupt Democrats, especially the dog catcher deserving of your support.
Fifth, tell the abhorrent ones you voted, but you did not vote for them. Tell them exactly what you did.
You want change, you want good Democratic candidates, vote for your local and state Democrats. Once again, you don't have to vote for the Republican candidate in a race with a hated DLC Democrat, just leave the boxes for that particular office blank.
That's it. That's how I've voted for the past twenty years.
But they won't learn unless they know. So tell them why you refused to vote for them.
This was written by a person who considers himself to be a loyal supporter of the Democratic Party and its long progressive tradition. The Democratic Party is not defined by the particular people who claim to rule over it, nor is it any particular candidate, it is the rank and file, those who fight for progressive change in this society. If the leadership abandons that fight, then the rank and file have the right to abandon the leadership.