The message Sanders has to deliver to his followers is simple: a vote for anyone other than Biden, or not voting at all, is a vote for Trump.
By DOUGLAS BLOOMFIELDDemocratic U.S. presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden at the 11th Democratic candidates debate of the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign in Washington, March 15, 2020(photo credit: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS)
Bernie Sanders may have ended his pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, but he still has a critical role to play over the next six months in deciding who does take the oath of office next January 20.Many Democrats carry bitter memories of the 2016 election, justly or not, believing that he helped elect Donald Trump by failing to personally campaign enough or mobilize his followers to vote for Hillary Clinton, and they worry about history repeating itself.The Vermont senator said he is dropping his campaign but will leave his name on upcoming primary ballots to collect delegates who will help him shape the party platform at the August convention. His announced goal is to “move [Joe Biden] in a more progressive direction.”The former vice president has already begun moving toward Sanders on student debt forgiveness and Medicare eligibility. Over the past five years Sander built “the biggest volunteers and donor base ever seen in a Democratic primary,” according to the Washington Post’s David Weigel. It wasn’t enough to get the nomination, twice, but can it give a needed boost to Biden?Biden is leading President Trump by 11 points (53-42) among registered voters, according to a new CNN poll. He also has strong leads among women, racial minorities and voters under 35.But he trails the incumbent in voter enthusiasm in a race that will ultimately be determined by turnout. While eight in 10 Republican voters are either “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about voting for Trump in November, only 56 percent of Democratic voters say they feel that way about Biden at this point. Bear in mind, however, that Biden just won a long nomination fight in a field that once numbered 27, and only now is he shifting his focus to the general election. Trump has the advantage of a national organization that has been operating more than five years and, as my mother would say, ungeshtooped mit gelt, filthy rich.Voters told pollsters they have more faith in Biden handling key issues like the Covid-19 pandemic (52 percent to 43 percent), health care (57-39) and helping the middle class (57-38).Trump has many advantages, starting with the power of incumbency and that big blue plane that, once he “opens” the country, will take him between rallies and his golf courses right up to election day and much of it at taxpayer expenseFour years ago, one in eight of those who supported Sanders in the primaries switched to Trump in November, according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Their votes made a difference in battleground states, the study concluded. They tended to be older, whiter and more conservative, notably on race, than the average Democratic primary voter, VOX reported.Another factor that drew Sanders voters to Trump was that both men were seen as outsiders who would shake up the establishment, which they identified with Clinton. This year will Trump be viewed as the establishment or still the outsider vs the insider Joe Biden, who has spent half a century in Washington?An ABC News/Washington Post poll showed 15 percent of Sanders’ supporters said they would go for Trump if Biden were the Democratic nominee. Trump’s campaign and supporters have already begun working to attract those voters in ads and presidential tweets.Just as worrisome for the Democrats are the “never-Biden” Sandernistas who insist they will stay at home on election day or cast their ballots for yet another third-party spoiler.The message Sanders has to deliver to his followers is simple: a vote for anyone other than Biden, or not voting at all, is a vote for Trump.Sanders stands to benefit by a Biden victory. He’s unlikely to ever run again; he’ll be 82 in 2024, so by helping elect a Democratic president he will have new stature and power. More so if Democrats can flip the Senate. The junior senator from the Green Mountain state will very likely chair an important committee. magnifying his voice beyond that of an angry curmudgeon.Biden needs Sanders not only out campaigning but also tapping his extensive donor base, email operation and grass roots organization.The president has turned his almost daily White House pandemic briefings into campaign events, substitutes for the rallies he loves but has been forced to shelve. He gets live TV coverage to trash his critics, his opponents and the media. He shamelessly uses the events to give shout-outs and face time for some major donors, corporate executives and preferred candidates, and infomercials for favorite industries and companies.His main competition in those briefings is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose noon briefings have become must-see TV for news junkies and those starved for useful information. He is fully prepared, knowledgeable, articulate, on-topic and empathetic -- all the things Trump is not. That has led some to call for him to jump into the presidential contest. Fuhgeddaboudit. He has said he’s not interested now or later. But he’s only 62, a whippersnapper next to today’s contenders, so don’t count him out for 2024 or 2028.While Trump is cashing in – politically and possibly financially -- on the pandemic, the crisis has harmed the Biden campaign, knocking it off the front pages and nightly news, postponing primaries, cancelling rallies, drying up campaign donations and sapping it of momentum as the candidate tries to stay in touch through a makeshift studio in the basement of his Wilmington home.Biden knows many, particularly in the middle classes, might find it unseemly to be appealing for campaign donations during a pandemic and soaring unemployment. Trump does not suffer from similar inhibitions.Sanders won’t be the next president and can’t cure the coronavirus any more than Trump’s quack remedies, but he can inject some new momentum into the Democratic campaign for the White House.If the senator was serious when he told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell last week that he “will do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump,” now’s the time to prove it.
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