Far Left Refuses To Learn Lesson After Primary Blowouts, Urges Biden To Become Bernie
The landscape of the Democratic presidential primary race has shifted dramatically in less than a month.
Prior to Super Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign appeared to be in deep trouble. Biden failed to win early contests, including Iowa and New Hampshire, and his plummeting polling averages put him more than 12 points behind the surging Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Then, however, two of the more moderate candidates — former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar — dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden.
With the Democratic establishment rallying behind him, the former vice president had an impressive showing on Super Tuesday, giving his campaign new momentum that has continued into other states.
Naturally, those in the party’s far-left faction are unhappy with Biden’s resurgence and Sanders’ decline, and some have proposed a solution.
If Sanders cannot win, they want Biden to transform into Sanders — or at least adopt some version of his ideas.
Matthew Yglesias of the progessive site Vox offered a laundry list of policies he said Biden should embrace to “unify the party,” including a “large minimum wage increase,” “major expansion of government run health programs” and “multi-trillion investment in zero carbon energy.”
Biden needs to make major concessions to the left to unify the party. Should consider:
— large minimum wage increase
— major expansion of government run health programs
— multi-trillion investment in zero carbon energy
— ban right to work laws— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 11, 2020
Sanders surrogate and former Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour echoed that view.
“If Biden gets this nomination and wants Bernie supporters – he’s going to have to concede & negotiate on issues,” she said in a tweet Tuesday. “We need to be able to inspire voters on the issues that moved us/them to support Bernie Sanders. I think this is fair and reasonable. We have to push him to the left.”
If Biden gets this nomination and wants Bernie supporters – he’s going to have to concede & negotiate on issues. We need to be able to inspire voters on the issues that moved us/them to support Bernie Sanders. I think this is fair and reasonable. We have to push him to the left.
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) March 11, 2020
The party’s mobilization for Biden has left it with a new set of challenges, including the feeling among progressives that they’ve been left behind once again. Many of them believe Sanders was cheated out of the nomination four years ago by the Democratic National Committee.
As they have noted on social media, they do not owe their votes to Biden.
joe biden and his supporters have to earn our votes and the TOXICITY i’m seeing online from his supporters toward bernie voters tonight might make that very hard. they have work to do!
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) March 11, 2020
You’ve spent months insulting, demeaning, sidelining and ridiculing us as “Bernie bros” and now you want our vote in November? No thanks. #NeverBiden
— Andy James (@Andy_J96) March 11, 2020
We Bernie supporters have NO responsibility to support Biden. The Dem establishment better double and triple down to get their chosen one elected.
We progressives need to sustain our working class movement. The Dems are on their own. #NeverBiden— Bernie2020 | IMPEACH TRUMP (@Bakari45) March 11, 2020
Many Sanders supporters, tired of having their votes taken for granted, want Biden to earn their support by moving to the left.
The challenge for Biden is that he was chosen as the safer, less-radical alternative to Sanders. The differences between the two are what prompted the party to unify behind him in the first place.
If he moves to the left to pacify Sanders supporters, the former vice president risks compromising the qualities that made him the better bet in a one-on-one battle with President Donald Trump.
The conventional wisdom now is that the nomination is Joe Biden’s to lose.
Soon he’ll have to decide whether to alienate middle-of-the-road voters by making concessions to the party’s far left, or risk losing Sanders supporters’ votes in November.
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