Bernie Sanders Isn’t The Man He Used To Be
From anti-establishment outrider to Democratic loyalist
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In March 2016, when Democratic party leaders — including President Obama (reportedly) — were attempting to unite the party around Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders was refusing to drop out of the Presidential race, calling such an idea “ridiculous”. He said that to not fight until “the end” would be a “very bad mistake.” Not just would he refuse to drop out in March, he’d also refuse to do so in April, May and even June.
By June, it was apparent to nearly everyone that Bernie wasn’t going to be the Democratic nominee. At this time, a BBC News reporter described the odds against Sanders as “near overwhelming”, while prominent Sanders backer’s Jeff Merkley and Raul Grijalva were already signalling that the party needed to get behind Clinton in her fight against then-candidate Trump. Sanders himself seemed aware of the impossibility of his campaign winning, focusing instead on the long-term future of his movement and less on the all important delegate math. Still, Bernie continued to insist on fighting till the end and taking the energy of his delegates all the way to the convention; hoping that by doing so he could secure meaningful concessions by presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.
Doing this was an incredibly risky move for Sanders and it confounded and angered his critics in equal measure. But it was also the type of bold, risky move that galvanised a historic grassroots movement to line up behind Sanders. For ‘2016 Bernie’, some things mattered more than playing by the rules and pleasing the political establishment — one of those things was securing long-term ideological victories, even if it meant putting party unity on hold.
Now, the Bernie of 2016 seems long gone. Despite getting off to a much stronger start in 2020 than in 2016, Sanders also dropped out of the race a lot, lot earlier this time round — endorsing Biden three months earlier in the election cycle than he had endorsed Clinton in 2016. Sanders was also far more enthusiastic in his backing of “good friend” Biden than he was in endorsing his 2016 rival; who he never seemed to have any particular affinity for.
That Bernie Sanders is now willing to drop so much of what he’s fought for to beat Trump, doesn’t make him the exception in the Trump era, it makes him the norm
Sanders didn’t wait until the end of the primary to drop out and he didn’t pressure Biden to make meaningful policy compromises. Instead he settled for the creation of a task force — the importance of which is unclear and very much up for debate. Even if Bernie felt particularly strongly about the need to beat Trump, there was little evidence that his continued presence in the race was making this prospect significantly less likely — with Biden maintaining a strong poll lead over Trump throughout the time Sanders was running. If anything, Biden was much more capable of withstanding Bernie’s presence in the race than Hillary was. Yet, Sanders was more than ready to throw his full support behind Biden, even before many states had the chance to vote. On top of this, the Vermont senator seemed largely unsympathetic towards those who now had the same concerns about the Democratic Party that he himself had four years earlier; calling it “irresponsible” not to back Biden, in a rebuke of his former press secretary Briahna Joy Gray, who’d refused to endorse the former VP.
These latest decisions made by Sanders have bewildered many of his loudest supporters. After Sanders endorsement of Biden, Krystal Ball — co-host of the popular, online, anti-establishment show ‘Rising’ — asked “was [the Sanders campaign] even the campaign that I thought I was supporting?” and said the Vermont Senator “owed” his supporters more than he was giving them. Even his critics were stunned by the 180 he had done since 2016.
“It was possible [for Bernie] to hold out, to push for more; to extract a concession that may actually mean something — honestly, he owed it to his supporters and to the people who are living today without [health] insurance, who are struggling to get by with low wages or, who newly have no job at all thanks to the Coronavirus” — Krystal Ball on Sanders endorsement of Biden
What makes Sanders change of heart even more surprising is the fact that he probably had more reason to hate the Democratic Party in 2020 than he did in 2016. After the 2016 election, senior Democratic officials — including Hillary Clinton — had many a harsh word to say about Sanders and, while the DNC may not have full-out rigged the 2016 primary against Bernie, we found out afterwards that they certainly weren’t neutral either. So why exactly did Bernie fall in line so quickly and so full-heartedly?
It would be easy to spend all day theorising as to what Sanders thought process was when he chose not just to endorse Biden, but also to fundraise on behalf of the DNC. One theory is that, having joined the Senate Democratic leadership team in late 2016, Sanders effectively became co-opted by the party establishment — turning him from an anti-establishment revolutionary to a Democratic loyalist. Another theory is that Bernie realised 2020 would likely be the last time he held a significant presence on the national stage and he wanted to make sure he was remembered as someone who did everything he could to beat Trump — rather than being remembered as a Nader 2.0.. Of course, yet another theory — and perhaps the simplest one — is that the supposed friendship between Biden and Sanders made it easier for Bernie to overlook the significant ideological differences between the two of them.
However, I think what has happened to Bernie isn’t unique to him — it’s a symptom of what the Trump era has done to nearly everyone. Before Trump was president, partisanship wasn’t so entrenched and political fights didn’t feel so existential. Now, every election is portrayed as ‘life or death’, and the ongoing battle between red and blue feels more like a battle between ‘good vs. evil’ (which side is which will depend on who you ask). Before Trump, it was possible for people on the left to have political discussions that boiled down to more than ‘orange man: bad’. It was possible to critique your own side without being accused of carrying water for your opponents. Before Trump, it was possible to have aspirations beyond winning the next election. It was possible to care more about the survival of your vision than the unity of your party. That Bernie Sanders is now willing to drop so much of what he’s fought for to beat Trump, doesn’t make him the exception in the Trump era, it makes him the norm. But Sanders appeal was never about being the norm, it was about being the precise opposite.
