The Bernie Sanders campaign may be over, but its end leaves us with something that the senator from Vermont never failed to invoke: strong opinions.
On Wednesday, Sen. Sanders, I-Vt., officially dropped out of the presidential primary race. In a news cycle dominated by coronavirus updates, the close of the Sanders campaign offers opinion writers a chance to write on something new, which they jumped on.
New York Times opinion writer Elizabeth Bruenig lamented the end of the campaign claiming, “Bernie Sanders never lied.”
“Mr. Sanders is not and has never been a liar. His remarkable consistency over time, his notorious bluntness and his open disdain for sycophantic politics are all simply manifestations of that one critical fact. It made him an awkward fit for Washington, and it built him a movement.”
For some, this decision has been a long time coming. On March 19 NBC News’ Noah Berlatsky commented.
“Sanders has, in short, no realistic path to the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s lost, and it’s time he drops out for the sake of the progressive movement he’s championed.”
Bernie Sanders supporters like Alex Kotch, an investigative reporter for The Center for Media and Democracy, weren’t accepting the sympathy from pundits who only yesterday were calling for the end of the Sanders campaign.
J.T. Young, contributor for The Hill, questioned why Sanders dropped out this year, when he didn’t in 2016.
“Less argument exists for Bernie Sanders to quit the presidential race now than existed four years ago. Sanders is again positioned where he was then — holding the party’s left wing and receiving about the same support — while facing a weaker opponent and being less beholden to the party’s establishment.”
Washington Post opinion writer Paul Waldman claimed COVID-19 could be a possible explanation for the early exit.
“Were it not for the novel coronavirus, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would be barnstorming the country. He’d be traveling from one state to the next, holding rallies, doing interviews — and explaining, over and over, why despite Joe Biden’s all but insurmountable delegate lead, there was still a good reason for him to stay in the race.”
A March 11 opinion piece in The Atlantic stated “the best thing Bernie Sanders can do is drop out.”
“Bernie Sanders’s signature issue is Medicare for All: a vision of state-financed health care for every American. But Sanders’s defeat could drag his issue down with him, instead of it lofting him into the presidency.” — David Frum, staff writer.
Matthew Yglesias, a senior correspondent for Vox.com, opined that “Bernie Sanders’s campaign is over, but his legacy is winning.”
“Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign is over. And unlike his 2016 run, which surely counted as a kind of moral victory, his 2020 loss is a much more crushing and definitive defeat.
“But what remains true is that Sanders ignited a movement that rapidly pulled the party further left than was imaginable just four years ago. His ideas are the future. That’s Sanders’ victory.”
New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait said in March that Sanders’ couldn’t accept that “Democratic voters didn’t want him.”
“The Bernie Sanders movement has mostly accepted the finality of Biden’s victory. What it hasn’t come to terms with is its causes. The Sanders campaign and many of its enthusiasts continue to see Biden’s victory as either a fluke or a plot.”