The historic unpopularity of President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress can be interpreted as a prime opportunity for the Democratic Party to make an electoral comeback in 2018, but that interpretation fails to take into account the fact that the Democrats are a bunch of sad-faced clowns who excel at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Imagine, for a moment, that the Democrats have on their side the most popular politician in the United States. Imagine also that this popular politician has a razor-sharp focus on issues-oriented politics and is known for his concrete proposals designed to elevate the working class and the poor in our society. Okay, you can stop imagining, because this is reality. Bernie Sanders, the most popular politician in the United States, according to polling reported in Newsweek, wants to help the Democrats win in 2018 and beyond. Democrats, however, don’t want his help. They don’t want to win. Not really, anyway. They are born losers.

Rather than focusing on policies that will help the underclasses, Democrats are doubling down on simply being the party that isn’t Donald Trump. Medicare for all Americans? The Democrats can’t be bothered with that. They’d rather endlessly remind us that Trump is under investigation for his alleged ties to Russia. But whether Trump has ties to Russia or not, many of us still lack affordable health care and have lives defined by gross economic inequality.

Democrats, as they count their corporate money, have zero interest in the kind of real-world solutions that a populist center-left politician like Bernie Sanders is offering. They prefer empty distractions and banal political drama. This is because, despite some occasional rhetoric to the contrary, the Democrats are a right-wing, ultra-capitalist party. They reject Sanders because he promotes a worldview that is fundamentally at odds with theirs.

It’s extremely frustrating that the two dominant political parties in the United States are right-wing parties. The notion that the Democrats are at all a “leftist” organization can be easily dismissed by the fact that they won’t even embrace the centrist policies of a middle-of-the-road progressive like Bernie Sanders. And while the Democrats will certainly win some default votes simply by not being Trump, their endless harping about Russia and complete disinterest in focusing on class issues will result in their electoral failure in 2018 and 2020.