If the mainstream media have any explanation for the lack of a more electable Democratic bench, it is that the centrist candidates who could win a national election have been kept off the political ladder by primary threats from the far left of the base. In the words of a July 13 Washington Post analysis by David Brady and Bruce Cain, progressives have been relentless in “dragging their party to left of the median voter.”

But outside those precincts dominated by universities and urban cores, are aspiring moderates really being scared away by a progressive fringe that has never represented more than 8 percent of the electorate? In times past, Jack Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and other successful Democrats not only fended off far-left primary challengers with much larger followings, but welcomed these contests as an opportunity to strengthen their respective appeals to swing voters in the subsequent general elections.

Indeed, the logical explanation for today’s lack of a credible Democratic bench is that such a cohort does exist but is deliberately keeping out of sight. In other words, its members have made the strategic decision to temporarily avoid the national spotlight and instead build reputations for managerial competence on issues unlikely to attract much controversy.