The Democratic Party is a traditional political organization dedicated to winning elections. It is also a social justice movement, the political home of societal change. …
The tension between the center and the fervent anti-corporate, anti-Wall Street wing of the party — Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and now Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — has amplified intraparty conflict.
While some centrist Democrats and organizations with which they are allied view economic populists as an electoral liability, they are, among other things, crucial to keeping within the Democratic fold a bloc of voters who can drift in small but significant numbers to third-party candidates, like Jill Stein in 2016 and Ralph Nader in 2000, who arguably prevented Democratic candidates from winning the presidency.
While both parties are penalized for their internal divisions, there is some evidence that cultural and economic strains present particular challenges for Democrats. CONT.
Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times