San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Sanders’ revolution blues
After King Arthur cuts off the Black Knight’s left arm in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” his foe ripostes “’Tis but a scratch” and keeps fighting. Arthur soon severs the knight’s other arm and kneels to thank the Lord for his apparent victory — only to be kicked in the head by one of his opponent’s remaining limbs. “Come on, then,” the armless knight insists. “Have at you!”
Nearly two weeks ago, buoyed by a convincing victory in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary, former Vice President Joe Biden won 10 of the 14 states that voted on Super Tuesday, as a succession of rivals surrendered and endorsed him. But Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders persevered, only to lose four of the six states that voted last Tuesday and fall behind in a fifth, giving Biden a lead of more than 150 delegates.
Sanders surfaced Wednesday in his hometown of Burlington, Vt., to point out that he had nevertheless led among young voters and championed winning ideas. He looked forward to debating Biden on Sunday, when he would ask him what he plans to do about medical bankruptcies, college debt and other signature Sanders issues. Meanwhile, his campaign continued to marshal support, air disingenuous attacks against Biden and even open new field offices.
In short: Have at you! Granted, for a pugnacious socialist, Sanders showed some restraint over the past week. While threatening to have at Biden in what has been one of the gaffeprone veep’s weakest events — debate — Sanders was giving him advance warning of his questions. The senator also acknowledged that he was losing the race and the argument over which candidate is most likely to defeat President Trump. And he called Biden “my friend.”
The longtime party outsider nevertheless risks reprising his 2016 role as an all too effective foe of the Democratic standard-bearer — and thereby offering aid and comfort to Trump.
Between Tuesday trouncings, for instance, Sanders alleged in an interview that “the power of the establishment” had “forced” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg out of the race as “the billionaire class” got behind Biden. That eerily echoed Trump, who tweeted days earlier that “The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN!” The president was promoting the same conspiratorial narrative even when Sanders was winning: After his February victory in Nevada, his candidacy’s high-water mark, Trump said darkly of Sanders, “I just hope they treat him fairly. I hope it’s not going to be a rigged deal, because there’s a lot of bad things going on.”
Trump was responding partly to a report that intelligence officials believe the Russian government has tried to aid Sanders’ campaign, which the president characterized as a Democratic Party smear against the senator. But the Kremlin has boosted Sanders before, according to Senate and Justice Department investigators, promoting his campaign four years ago in the interest of delegitimizing the eventual Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, to Trump’s ultimate benefit.
Despite Vladimir Putin’s reported efforts, and despite the Sanders campaign’s success in raising money and wresting procedural concessions from the party, the former vice president isn’t just winning the Democratic nomination; he’s winning it democratically. In fact, as the race has become more democratic — as primaries have replaced caucuses and fragmented pluralities have given way to majorities — Biden has done better.
The sine qua non of his comeback was South Carolina, where his victory approached a majority, showed resonance within the party’s crucial African American base, and put him atop a pile of moderates who had theretofore splintered the anti-Sanders vote. Biden had been one of many candidates claiming electoral viability as a chief attribute; when he proved it by winning an election, the rest faded away.
He now leads by some 1.5 million votes after taking states in every part of the country; late-arriving ballots have even narrowed his deficit in California and erased it in another Sanders stronghold, Washington. Sanders certainly has a right to keep running and presumably has reasons. But if, how and when he withdraws will be the test of his stated determination to deny a second term to Donald Trump.