AESTHETICS ARE NOT IDEOLOGY:

In recent interviews, Schultz has argued that progressive Democrats have grown so rigidly ideological, they can no longer recognize basic political and policy realities.

He has also contended that the wealthiest nation in human history can't afford to provide public health insurance to all of its citizens; that the national debt is a bigger threat to the United States than climate change; and that Democrats would be wise to demonstrate "leadership" to the electorate - by calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

"It concerns me that so many voices within the Democratic Party are going so far to the left," Schultz told CNBC Tuesday. "I say to myself, 'How are we going to pay for these things,' in terms of things like single payer [and] people espousing the fact that the government is going to give everyone a job. I don't think that's realistic."

Schultz went on to say, "I think the greatest threat domestically to the country is this $21 trillion debt hanging over the cloud of America and future generations...The only way we're going to get out of that is we've got to grow the economy, in my view, 4 percent or greater. And then we have to go after entitlements."

In an interview with Time Magazine earlier this year, Schultz argued that any fair-minded Democrat - or Republican - would reach this same conclusion, if they only left "their ideology outside the room and recognized that we're here to walk in the shoes of the American people."

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