Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont) (left), Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, joined Dr. Robert A. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health, in highlighting how VA is bridging health care and information technology. (Photo courtesy of VA)
Christian Barnard writes in The American Spectator (abridged):
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has officially dropped out of the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination, making Vice President Joe Biden the presumptive nominee.
This move has been expected for more than a month, as Biden has pulled far ahead in winning primary delegates and effectively eliminated Sanders’ path to the nomination. It’s now clear that Bernie’s Democratic Socialist base needs to do some self-reflection. They need to face the real possibility that a majority of Democrats and Americans don’t support their policy platform, as they claim, and that corruption and unfair influence from the wealthy aren’t sufficient explanations for their election struggles.
The reflexive Democratic Socialist response of blaming their setbacks on corrupt influence from the wealthy and corporations falls flat, too.
Progressive Democrats are right that money can distort politics, that the Democratic establishment likely wasn’t too keen on Sanders, and that many Americans respond favorably to their policy platform, at least in the abstract. They have reason to be cautiously optimistic about future elections.
Democratic Socialists can’t blame their defeats solely on Elizabeth Warren, empty claims of corruption, voter suppression, or any other unfair influences. Instead, the bulk of the blame falls on themselves for not seeing that many Democratic voters simply aren’t sold on their far-left vision.
Christian Barnard is a policy analyst at Reason Foundation.
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