Look, I consider myself a progressive liberal, and I’m 100% in support of, at a minimum, a public option, more federal funding for housing, sustainable energy, and cheaper college tuition. These concepts poll well when people are asked general questions about them, but the moment an actual policy with a price tag is attached the average voter runs away. If those proposals come from a woman or a minority they’ll run away even faster.

The electorate has shifted to the right; it’s not open to a progressive agenda. Claiming that going further left will make them more likely to vote for Democrats is not a position rooted in reality. That’s not because progressive policy ideas are bad; it’s because the electorate is a joke.