Primary Manchin and Sinema? Good luck with that.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s declaration on Tuesday that he might support primary challenges to two of his Democratic colleagues, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), shows how frustrated progressives are at their inability to enact their sweeping agenda. It also shows how disconnected progressive ideology is from reality.

The Vermont independent and his ideological comrades are understandably upset that these two senators are blocking their plans to transform the United States. Progressives regard this less-than-dynamic duo as a couple of renegades who are betraying the views of the people who elected them. Progressives blame Manchin and Sinema alone for their party’s failure; in fact, the two Democratic holdouts are only powerful because 50 Republicans oppose the progressive agenda.

The trouble with this narrative is that it is utterly warped. Manchin and Sinema, like all elected members, were not elected by a narrow group of ideologues or donors; they were elected by a majority vote of their states’ electorates. That larger group includes many people who aren’t progressives at all, even if they occasionally vote for Democrats. Indeed, Manchin – the only remaining Democrat elected statewide in West Virginia – was sent to Washington by an overwhelmingly conservative population. The fact that he and Sinema prioritize the views of their constituents over the views of progressive activists isn’t heresy; it’s democracy.

Progressives often don’t see things that way because many of them share a worldview that dismisses opinions different from their own. When one disagrees with a progressive, they are often immediately cast out into the realm of devilish evildoers. If you think I exaggerate, look again. Those who think climate change is a problem but not an existential crisis are labeled “climate deniers,” which in the minds of many progressives is as bad as being a Holocaust denier. People who think requiring voters to show identification before casting ballots, a common practice in most democracies, aren’t just wrong; they are racists who support the return of Jim Crow.