Making a Deal with the Devil

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D., VT), despite losing the 2020 primary to Joe Biden, believes President Joe Biden can win in 2024. With Bernie’s caveat: if he campaigns on the Bernie agenda, which means Mr. Biden must sign on to the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force.

Haven’t heard of the Unity Task Force, you say? Well, here’s an explanation from the WSJ:

In (Sander’s) statement defending the President, (Bernie) urged Mr. Biden to support a national “living wage,” a payroll tax hike, medical debt cancellation and much more.

“Biden and Democrats can win this election if they address the needs of the working class,” according to Bernie.

The desperate President is turning to the left because he knows these Democrats don’t face electoral challenges. Progressives are running in safe seats or in Democratic states where Donald Trump has no chance to win. But in his desperation, Mr. Biden is also making a possible second term even more hostage to the left. Bernie …  (has) plenty of unfinished policy business (he) hopes to get done if Democrats control the White House and Congress.

Progressives will win even if Joe Biden doesn’t make it through four more years, argues WSJ editors:

(Progressives’s) dream scenario would be for President Biden to win, then retire and pass the Oval Office on to Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran as a whole-hearted progressive in the primaries in 2020.

Mr. Biden’s political vulnerability, and his turn to progressives for a lifeline, raises the policy stakes even higher for the November election.

Bernie Sanders may believe social spending is free, but his political fee is steep.