For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. – Senator Edward Kennedy, 1980 Democratic Convention Speech
Burlington, Vermont
Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont and twice runner-up for the Democratic nomination for President, withdrew from the 2020 race this week. He has been an avowed socialist since he won his first political office as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1980. Even before that, he was always on the radical side of the spectrum; working in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s and serving as the statewide candidate of the “Liberty Union” party in Vermont, organized to oppose the Vietnam War.
He took his dream, and his political views, from the mayor’s office to the House of Representatives, and then across the Capitol Rotunda to the US Senate. There has never been any subterfuge or political compromise in Bernie’s positions (with the exception of his stand on gun rights). He takes the position that the government of the United States, either Republican or Democrat, has allowed big business, big finance, and billionaires to profit and take control at the expense of the working people.
A Failed Revolution
There is a “theory” of revolution that applies to the Sander’s candidacy. It states that revolution doesn’t occur when people are at their lowest. Revolution happens when folks can see that there might be hope for a brighter future, and that hope is then dashed. Revolution, so the theory goes, is a result of frustration and desperation, not just depression.
To Sanders, the Obama Presidency represented the dashed hopes of the working class. After decades of Presidents dedicated to improving the financial and business classes, with Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush Jr. all “in the pocket” of Wall Street, the 2008 election of Barack Obama was supposed to be the moment of existential change. The first black President, a man with a career as a community organizer before entering politics, a campaign run on “Hope”: all lifted the “common” Americans’ dream of a fair chance.
But the Great Recession of 2008 meant that instead of uplifting all Americans, President Obama had to make deals with Wall Street to allow those same Americans to avoid financial destruction in Depression. The Republican Party not only opposed Obama’s candidacy; they were willing to do anything to disrupt his Presidency. It wasn’t about moving the country forward; it was about keeping the Democrat from any success at all.
Even in his signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act, the President was forced to compromise away some of the most important changes, most notably, a public option for buying insurance. And in his second term of office, Barack Obama was forced to use executive orders to pursue his policy agenda, making them only temporary changes rather than Federal Law. The Paris Climate Accord and action for Dreamers are two examples of this.
Hillary
In 2016 Sanders saw Hillary Clinton’s candidacy as a return to the deals of old; a Democrat who “says” the right things to the voters, but was financially tied to Wall Street and the billionaire class. He believed that it was time for his “revolution”, and stepped out in an improbable campaign for the United States Presidency. It was the culmination of his dream of a Social-Democratic America, and his saw Americans, and particularly the younger generation, burdened with enormous educational debt, as ready for change.
He wasn’t wrong. Hillary Clinton was tied to the financial class, and the Democratic Party was tied to Hillary Clinton’s money. It should have been no surprise then that the Democratic National Committee leaned towards Clinton. That gave fuel to Bernie’s revolutionary fire, claiming that he was revolting against the Party as well as the governmental structure. But Bernie’s failure in 2016 wasn’t about the DNC. His revolution failed to catch fire with the core constituencies of the Democratic Party, minorities. In the end, he didn’t win in 2016 because he didn’t get the votes.
Trump
But the election of Donald Trump gave the Sanders’ revolution new hope. Now it was no longer a contrast between a moderate Democrat and Sanders’ socialism, it was complete opposites. There was a President who claimed to be a billionaire and made no attempt to hide his affinity for big business, versus the working class. If Hillary wasn’t enough of a “disappointment” to draw the revolution, surely Donald was.
And Sanders saw evidence of political hope in 2018. The success of extreme Democrats against the establishment, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, seemed evidence of the growing strength of the Sanders movement. 2020 might be the opportunity to change everything, and for Sanders, at seventy-eight years old, it would be his last chance to lead the revolution.
Sanders campaign was better organized, better financed, and had more participants than ever before. His call for revolutionary change resonated with Americans who saw the Trump Presidency as a triumph of everything bad in America, and a loss of all the good. In the early primaries of 2020, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada; Bernie looked like the dominant candidate. For a few days, after Nevada, the Democratic Party was faced with the vision as Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont, as their 2020 candidate for President.
Biden
I’m sure there are vast conspiracy theories about what happened in those four days between Nevada and South Carolina. Somewhere on the web, I’m sure “the DNC put their thumb on the scale” to make sure Joe Biden was the winner. But that’s not what really happened.
Two things happened. Democrats were willing to take anyone that could beat Donald Trump. They saw the reality of the gamble they were taking on Bernie Sanders. It was Joe Biden, a calming, moderate Democrat, versus the Revolution.
And second was the same problem that stopped Sanders in 2016. In the end, he couldn’t reach the core constituency of the Party. Minorities didn’t support him, and neither did the “mainstream” Democrats in moderate states like Illinois and Michigan. By Super-Tuesday, only ten days after the bright vision of Nevada, Biden was the prohibitive favorite.
The Dream
And whatever chance Sanders might have after that, was crushed by the crisis of pandemic. Now there was no way to reach people, and Sanders strength on college campuses was dispersed throughout the country. There was no way back, no way to walk into a “digital convention” in Milwaukee this summer with a delegate lead.
It was Sanders last shot. It should be no surprise that it took him some time to adjust to this new reality. But he ultimately did what was right for the Party, and the Country, and conceded the nomination to Biden. Now the focus is on Trump, and the ultimate issue of the 2020 general election: competency in the face of existential crisis.
Bernie will continue in the Senate. His influence on the Millennial Generation is fundamental to their beliefs. And, as Ted Kennedy said in 1980, … the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die”.
