We need a better progressive party

I'm trying to imagine how we pivot from a system with two parties, neither of whom are doing a thing for the American people, to a system with proper representation. Currently voting independent is a wasted vote. No indie candidate is strong enough to get more votes than a party candidate.

And yet many of us see a need for a new and better progressive party. 

Do we remodel the Democratic Party into a proper representative and progressive party or do we try to start from scratch? Seems to me it's akin to trying to replace capitalism. 

We can't even get people to use the metric system.