I think the voters would support him if they knew his actual policies but because socialism is still largely a taboo in America most voters are turned away simply because “he’s a socialist”. So it’s not the voters who despise him at much as it’s the party itself that despises him, because he is the opposition to the upper echelons of the party.

The current events with Hasan Piker make it pretty clear that the democratic party will go after their “allies” if they refuse to bend the knee to the “business as usual” politics of the party. So i absolutely believe the party itself has ran interference against Sanders to make sure people wouldn’t listen to him, because his politics are also antithetical to the “business as usual” politics.