Bernie Sanders is, famously, not a Democrat. This fact has been both a source of strength and a line of attack by party loyalists who wish to discredit him among Democratic voters. That line of attack hasn’t mattered all that much this primary season. And if his surge in the polls continues to hold, it might not even matter through the rest of the season. But if he wins the nomination, Sanders is going to need to unify the party as quickly as possible if he’s to have any chance of beating a sitting Republican president.

With Democratic Party voters, that’s going to be much easier than the party insiders imagine. Sanders already has a high favorability rating among the Democratic electorate — the vast majority indicate they would be perfectly happy with him as the nominee.

But with Democratic Party elected officials, it’s another case entirely. And unfortunately a party nominee — and even a president — needs more than the masses to enact his agenda. Despite the wild popularity of Sanders among its voters, the Democratic Party shows no signs of becoming the willing agent of any kind of social-democratic “political revolution.”