There's a weird thing going around where Ds argue that they should go full Warren or Sanders because Rs cater to their extremes/stand up for what they really believe in, or whatever. Which is fine, if you believe Rs don't pay any price for catering to their extremes. 1/
I don't think it's a *huge* penalty, but I think its definitely there. There's a subset of people who sort of like the wonky, problem-solver aspect of the Democratic Party of the past 25 years or so, who might otherwise vote Republican, cet. par. 3/
It isn't enough to say "Republicans win lots of elections." That's fine. The question is "would they win more elections, or by wider margins, if they played less to their base." I can think of multiple elections from the '10s where that is almost certainly the case. 4/
Again, not to say that Warren/Sanders can't win. I think they can, against Trump. But the arguments that they aren't riskier bets don't make a whole lot of sense to me. 5/
