Many policy wonks like to talk about the seemingly inevitable “swing toward the center” that happens from July to October every four years, where the nominee has to kowtow to all the voters in the mystical middle.
At this point, we all know elections are all about turnout, not persuasion. Republicans learned this years ago, but somehow naive democrats have yet to fully process this.
Bernie Sanders staying in the race has been like a check on Joe Biden. No matter how “over” the race is, there is still insecurity among democrats about whether or not his voters will turn out for Joe.
I can’t say for sure that they will or won’t, truly I don’t know, but Bernie is doing a huge service to his supporters by being in and staying in the race.
The longer Bernie is in, the more virtually impossible to “run towards the center” it will be for Joe to do later. Bernie is buying insurance for his base that Biden will not be able to run too far to the center because he has been making him dig himself too deep into a hole for the last month or so. This is not genius 4D chess, it’s pretty simple actually.
If Biden had not had a Bernie to worry about months ago, much less now, he would not have had to meet us where he did. As long as Bernie is in, he is a force that will make Biden keep as left as we can keep him. At this point, I doubt he’ll be able to run as far towards the center as he might’ve wanted to when he first entered the race.
Bernie’s campaign has been about not him, but us. Biden is still clearly afraid of us, and our turnout, because he is insecure about November. Bernie staying in the race is going to keep him from trying to be a Susanne Collins type, or a Joe Manchin type maybe. Bernie is trying to get his own support the best deal and most leverage before he loses. It’s not about his ego, it’s about US.