Oh what a beautiful morning
Well! Last night escalated quickly.
Former Vice President Joe Biden mounted the Mother of All Comebacks, winning nine out of the fourteen Super Tuesday contests, including a shock win in Texas, while, as of this writing, holding Senator Bernie Sanders' victory in California to single digits.
When Virginia came in and was called for Biden within seconds of the polls closing, I knew that the evening wouldn't turn out Sanders' way. Biden won states he had no business winning, like Texas, but also Minnesota and Senator Elizabeth Warren's home state of Massachusetts.
Biden would have won more states were it not for the presence of former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg. As of a few minutes ago, Bloomberg dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. It is now a two person race, with Warren being a non-factor, and outgoing Representative Tulsi Gabbard loitering around like the last patron at closing time at the library.
That Sanders' "revolution" hasn't materialized is highlighted by two data points.
In 2016, he won Oklahoma with 52% of the vote. Yesterday, his vote halved to 25%. And in 2016, he lost California with 46% of the vote. This year, he "won" it with, as of the latest results, 33% of the vote, a 13 point decline. Had Bloomberg not been in the race, Biden would have won my home state.
Sanders and his acolytes, like all soi disant revolutionaries, live in their fevered little bubble. They think that the people are ready for a cleansing upending of everything they know. They see that everything is shit, so surely that's a widespread feeling.
Americans are disaffected. They want to see change for the better. But to then extrapolate that they want revolution rather than evolution is where the Sanders movement goes awry. It's why his vote share has shrunk from 2016 to this year. It's why he could manage only 50.9% of the vote in his home state of Vermont, where in 2016 he won with 85%. Sanders keeps making promises he can't keep, just like Donald Trump. But unlike Republicans, Democrats aren't idiots. A permanent backbencher who has a couple of post offices renamed to his legacy in Congress does not cut a Lenin-like figure. He is, quite simply, a sad schmuck who peddles a bill of goods.
It wasn't the "Democratic Establishment" which propelled Biden to victory last night. It was Democratic voters deciding that he was best suited to take on and defeat Trump. It was Democratic voters deciding that they didn't want to risk replacing one demagogue with another. It was Democratic voters not "feeling the Bern". Democracy would be great were it not for all those pesky voters. The revolutionary vanguard was stopped in its tracks last night; after the tumultuous four years we've had, that's no bad thing.
Saddle up, kids. We have a long way yet to go. But the weather is fine, and there are plenty of good lodgings along the road.