That is what we saw this week: a Democratic cattle call for the progressive donor base.

If I were a Democrat, this would frustrate me deeply. It sure is a stupid way to run a party! Forcing candidates to take extreme views that will hurt them in the general election just so they can raise cash for the primaries — oh yeah, that is brilliant.

(Obligatory “to be sure” quote coming up)

To be sure, the Republicans have similar problems. In general, politically minded people on both sides do not think about our nominating system in terms of raw power politics — who gets to pick the nominee? If the power is currently distributed in such a way as to hamper a party’s ability to win the general election by forcing would-be nominees to take highly unpopular stands, then power needs to be redistributed. But I’m not a Democrat, that is their business, and they are aren’t going to listen to me.