We’ve seen this before and I don’t really find it all that concerning. I don’t think it’s likely to have enough impact to distort the Democratic nominating process.

When voters cast their ballots on Feb. 29 in the South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders may find himself getting votes from Republican activists.

In an effort to disrupt the Democratic nominating contest — and push state leaders to close political primaries, which would limit those contests only to voters who register by party — some Upstate GOP activists are encouraging Republicans to participate in the First in the South Democratic Primary and vote for Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist.

The plan was first reported by the (Charleston) Post and Courier. But on Wednesday, another effort called “Operation Chaos 2020” emerged, too. That effort echoes one pushed by conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in 2008 when he encouraged Republican voters to vote for Hillary Clinton to prolong the Democratic primary race against Barack Obama.

But it does give me occasion to express something that has been bugging me. It’s hard to avoid all the evidence out there that a big section of the Democratic Party is in something close to a panic that Bernie Sanders will win the nomination. A sizable but smaller contingent feels the same way about Elizabeth Warren. Yet, it doesn’t seem to phase Sanders’ supporters that they’ll have little hope of uniting the left for a run against Trump.

They come up with pie-in-the-sky theories about mobilizing folks who don’t normally vote or winning over MAGA voters or energizing the youth vote to such a degree that they don’t need a unified left. Perhaps on firmer ground, they also offer counterarguments that more moderate candidates won’t excite people and boost turnout.

It just seems to me that progressive vs. moderate isn’t overly important provided that the candidate has the ability to draw people together. Sanders simply cannot do that. I think Warren might be able to do it.

In any case, I don’t think the Republicans are wrong to want to boost Sanders. It’s not necessarily any particular policy Sanders is pushing that is the problem. It’s much more about the lasting fallout from the 2016 campaign and Sanders’ personality and lack of friendships within the Democratic establishment.

There’s just a lot of people on the left, including hordes of elected officials, who want no part of a Sanders candidacy.

I assume I’ll get the response that a lot of Sanders supporters won’t vote for anyone but Sanders, as if the rest of us should respond positively to blackmail. The truth is, that is basically a wash. Outside of Sanders and his supporters, pretty much everyone else will be capable of uniting the party, including the moderates.

It’s stunning to me that folks are ready to seriously consider Sanders despite the clear writing on the wall that he’d cause a crack-up within the party. And then there is the heart attack, which is way more of a problem than people want to admit.

Personally, I think the candidate who is acceptable to the biggest slice of Democrats is going to be the strongest, but we don’t necessarily need the strongest. What we should avoid is the weakest, and Sanders looks incredibly weak to me no matter what the polls might say.