Bernie Drops Out
Bernie Sanders suspends campaign. This is a truly sad day for anyone that was hoping for fundamental change.
What Bernie has done to create a real movement of people from all race, class, and political spectrum is absolutely remarkable. Bernie’s campaign motto is #NotMeUs. And he painstakingly upheld that notion. There have been multiple times throughout his 2020 campaign where I wished he had made the primary process more about him. More about how he himself is the superior choice to put forward progressive policies. Instead Bernie constantly pushed that Biden is his friend and let him off the hook multiple occasions.
Now that the presidential election is Biden vs. Trump – it’s hard to say how this election will go. I have friends and family who aren’t particularly on either political side that despise Trump, but would have voted for Bernie over Biden. And if you consider a recent poll that shows Biden’s supporters are only 24% very enthusiastic vs Trump’s 53%, who knows what could happen.
This upcoming presidential election will be very telling. If Biden does lose to Trump, I’m sure people everywhere will just point straight to Bernie and his supporters. Saying that it’s their fault and didn’t come out to vote or that Bernie ran too tough of a campaign against Biden. If Biden does win, it will likely put a dampening of the progressive wing of the democratic party.
In the 2018 midterms, there were rumors that the progressives were going to start making a comeback with the successful campaigns of AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley. A Biden win could push the narrative back towards the center.
While for now, our progressive ideals are being delayed, they will not be denied. As much as I personally do not believe that Joe Biden is the candidate to effectively dethrone Trump, I will absolutely do what’s right and vote for him. Hopefully this doesn’t turn into another 2016, but don’t get overconfident. Trump has already started his anti-Joe campaigning.
