Why Democrats Should Be Terrified of Bernie Sanders

Jonathan Chait: “All the Democratic candidates have shortcomings in their record or their personality that Trump could exploit. What sets Sanders apart from the field is that his weaknesses aren’t ugly comments from the past or unflattering episodes in his history, but his own core program. He has functionally reverse-engineered Trump’s preferred attacks into a series of campaign promises.”

“Just how damaging these positions will ultimately prove in the general election is impossible to measure. The effect is probably not zero. As a general rule, politicians for every position from dog catcher on up understand that advocating unpopular things makes winning elections harder. Not impossible, but harder. All things being equal, a candidate for dog catcher who promises to round up and cook stray pets at random has less chance of winning. Sanders can still overcome this and win, of course. One can even imagine circumstances — like a sudden, deep recession — in which he would probably win. One could likewise imagine a town that elects the dog-barbecue candidate for dog catcher. All that said, the scale of the downside risk seems unnervingly high.”