@engineer,
It is an unfortunate fact of history that the US, more than any other western nation I can think of, has been steeped for over a half century in messaging and beliefs that socialism is evil. As we see in the right wing contingent here, this is understood as a black/white matter, self-evidently true.
That is a headwind that anyone like Warren or Sanders face. It's a headwind that Clinton and Obama faced in setting up any sort of broad medical insurance program for citizens. And that's just one issue of many that inhibits rational discourse along these lines and which have, understandably I think, frustrated people on the left including some to the point of wishing for a sort of highly angry radical response.
And, as you point out, this has consequences for a significant portion of the electorate who are wary of leftist "extremism". As hightor keeps observing, this is a real thing.
Other western nations aren't like this. Sanders would be a far more acceptable candidate here in Canada, for example.
And I'm arguing that these conditions make the behavior of many apparent followers more damaging than would perhaps otherwise be the case. They need friends, not enemies.
