For the establishment democrats, pragmatism always mean going further right.
That there might be a pragmatic case to use left-wing demands strategically- e.g. as an ambit claim, as a point of differentiation, or to rally a base, never seems to occur to them.
The whole point of being pragmatic is situational flexibility, but what they call “pragmatism” is the opposite- an inflexible principle: “always go towards the right.” Their supposedly gritty commitment to doing whatever it takes is an illusion, in truth they have strongly held principles, it’s just that those principles are economically regressive and socially authoritarian.
DePonySum 