18 March 2020 — 0907 mdt
Bernie Sanders' decision to suspend his campaign
may depend on Biden's position on Medicare for All
Bernie Sanders lost by landslides in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois, yesterday. He’s now a distant second in delegates and votes received. His ability to campaign is crippled by the shutdowns of large gathering designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus from Wuhan. Fivethirtyeight.com puts his chances of winning the nomination at less than one in one hundred.
Not surprisingly, the Democratic Party’s establishment wants Bernie to fold his tent, to bring his followers under Biden’s canopy, and to do it last week.
That may not happen until Biden drops, or at least considerably softens, his implacable and vindictive opposition to Medicare for All. Prior to, and during, the last debate, Biden went out of his way to attack and disparage single payer health care.
And yesterday we learned from the New York Times that Biden does not want a running mate who supports Medicare for All:
“There has to be some correlation between their views and mine,” he added at that stop [in Hudson, N.H., in February]. He said that someone who “insisted that we do ‘Medicare for All’” would present “a real problem.”
As long as Biden continues delivering Republican talking points on single payer health care, Sanders may stay in the campaign to make the case for Medicare for All, trying to keep Biden honest on the issue and amassing as many delegates as possible for a possible fight over the platform.
If Biden’s supporters, Democrats who are personally weary of the primary campaign, and Biden himself, succumb to their impatience, to their dislike of progressive politics, and form a mob to give Sanders the bum’s rush, they risk splitting the party and losing a significant portion of Sanders’ base on 2 November.
It’s in Biden’s enlightened self-interest to give Sanders time to wind down his campaign with dignity and good humor. I hope he and his supporters recognize that and curb their impatience.