“Bernie Sanders is raising some issues that are important,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip and a Clinton supporter, told reporters last week. “But I don’t think there’s an expectation that’s he’s going to be president of the United States.”

The dynamics surrounding Sanders’ campaign present Democrats with an uncomfortable question: If the candidate trumpeting the party’s agenda most loudly and clearly is unelectable, what does it say about the agenda, itself?

Hastings, another Clinton backer, said the answer lies in political expediency. He said he supports Sanders’ economic agenda to a tee. But he also remembers too well the losing presidential campaigns of liberals George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy — both of whom he supported in the Civil Rights era — as well as the saga surrounding Ralph Nader, the consumer-rights advocate turned third-party candidate he blames for securing George W. Bush’s victory in 2000.

“Some argue, and I do, that Ralph Nader cost us that election … and I don’t have time for that. And I think that’s what members are saying: That I don’t have time for fringes, at this point. And that’s where Bernie is, and it’s regrettable,” Hastings said.