With apologies to the late Prince. The Hill describes how the Clinton brain trust is stuck in a time warp (boldface mine):

Clinton will want Sanders’s help in winning over his diehard supporters and unifying the party — and Sanders will want something in return.

The Vermont senator has been trying to push Clinton and Democrats to adopt positions on free tuition at public colleges, and to break up the nation’s six largest banks to lessen their dominance in the credit card and mortgage business.

Clinton supporters argue the former secretary of State has already been forced to the left by Sanders, and can’t risk moving further ahead of a general election.

“I don’t know what’s left to extract,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), a Clinton supporter, said in an interview with The Hill.

He said the Democratic primary moved the discussion “farther to the left than most moderate Democrats would like to see.

“Some would say it even endangers a victory in November because the further you go to the left or right, the further you frustrate independents,” Cleaver said. “He’s already impacted this election probably more than anyone else including Donald Trump.”

Keep in mind, Sanders does better among independents than Clinton does. Yet Clinton supporters (#NotAllClintonSupporters!) foolishly believe that independents think Sanders is too far to the left. This is nuts, as it’s not 1995 (or 1999) anymore. It also flies in the face of current political science research which argues that independents are ‘inconsistent extremists’: they hold leftist or rightist stances, depending on the issue.

This also puts the lie to the notion of unity:

At least on the twitter (granted, not a good sample) Clinton supporters seem generally unwilling to admit that many Sanders supporters are policy driven. And if Clinton wants the same things as Sanders does (“more that unites us then divides us”) then her policy proposals should bear a close resemblance to his. They do not. And people are keeping track.

Clinton will probably win, despite her campaign’s ineptitude, because most of the left won’t sit out the election given the alternative of Trump, though I think he’ll be far tougher than most people realize*. But let’s face it: Democrats are staying together for the kids. This could get really ugly down the road without some real concessions, as distasteful as that might be to some establishment Democrats (and their donors).

*Too many Democrats don’t realize just how disliked she really is. Because of this, they don’t understand how Trump’s attacks will work. For example, the “woman card” isn’t about sexism, it’s about ‘people like Clinton’ who play ‘unfair angles’ to gain advantage. We fail to understand these kinds of attacks at our own peril.

*Take for instance the “woman card” kerfuffle. If you have a visceral dislike for Clinton, then this will resonate as it plays to the belief that she’s underhanded and duplicitous. The gender bashing is just the route to get there.