"Bernie Sanders Has Always Sacrificed Pragmatism For Idealism, But Now Its Hurting Democrats"

[Steven Maurer]

6. Although his critique is cogent in some places

I think the author misses a critical point: Sanders isn't trying to convince moderates to join the party. He's trying to convince disaffected leftists. Moderates need to be persuaded as well of course, but others will do that. Sanders is not the entirety of the Democratic outreach program.

Insofar as disaffected leftists are concerned, many of them feel the need to that think they're better than other Democrats. Morally superior, especially to the people who made up Secretary Clinton coalition's (those for whom cultural and basic human rights is not an inferior consideration to attacking perceived economic enemies).

So it makes sense to for Sanders to indulge their conceits on that.

His casual sniping at the Democratic party may be annoying to some, but all in all, I see it as a positive effort. I doubt many people pay attention to it at all. And for those that do, the Democratic party can always artfully distance itself from him - like it did with this Mello kerfuffle, seeming to play footsie with the anti-choice movement.