Brother. I got a lot of respect for you, but as far as politics are concerned, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
1. The group that drafted AOC to primary Crowley,
Justice Dems, has seven members currently in Congress. They had about another dozen who won primaries and lost in the general last cycle. That's just Justice Dems. There's also Sanders' group, Our Revolution, and several other smaller outfits.
That's not even mentioning incumbents who've been pushed left by activism in the base. The Progressive Caucus has over 100 members as of January.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Progressive_Caucus
Also, that's just US Congressional elections. There are plenty of solid leftists like
Chokwe Lumumba who've been elected on the state and local level.
...and this is just the first election cycle of real activism. It's just the beginning.
2. How the fuck are progressives anything like Republicans? We support government intervention on a massive scale. The current incarnation of the Republican party are anarcho-capitalists who use social issues to rope into people voting against their economic interests.
Do yourself a favor and turn off the cable news and try to do some reading about contemporary political theory and policy.