I think a large group of Dems actually buy into the triangulator bs that you see in most "left"wing parties (quotations because they're not, but you know what I mean.) I don't know if the leaders buy into it, I know there's some insidious psy-op at the root of it, meant to kneecap any leftist political party, but I think a very large group actually believes the "aw shucks we really do want to do universal healthcare, but we gotta be more rightwing to get into government."
These people never interrogate the validity of the claim, let alone the belief that a politicians task is to get elected.
You'll see this tendency whenever you ask about doing any actual popular policy. "It's more nuanced than that..." "We gotta be bi-partisan..." "We want to be able to get elected..." "We don't want to scare away voters..." "We gotta be realistic..."
Like with the decline of US intelligence agencies I think we are now seeing a generation of people who actually believe the propaganda.