What Bernie Sanders doesn’t get
Dear Bernie Sanders – I don’t know where you find these people, but most of your top advisers are just chaos agents who want to burn it all down and couldn’t care less about your progressive agenda. Since no one around you is going to be straight with you, I will. I’m going to give you a piece of advice that’s crucial to you getting the most out of this possible.
The thing is, Bernie, that politics is governed entirely by leverage. Politics isn’t governed by magic wand, or rallies, or foot stomping, it’s leverage. I know you don’t like spending a lot of time focusing on this side of politics, which is why none of your Senate bills have ever been passed, even though many of them had merit. But right now, Bernie, you have leverage. You won’t for long.
Bernie, you can go to Joe Biden this week and offer to drop out and endorse him in exchange for policy concessions, and you can get a ton in return. Biden would love to put this primary race to bed, so he could pivot to fighting Donald Trump this early. It would be worth a lot to him, so he’d be willing to give you more for it.
But Bernie, if you drag this out for a few months, you’ll have already cost Biden the opportunity to pivot to the general election early. Your exit and endorsement won’t be worth nearly as much to him at that point, so he won’t give you nearly as much in return.
Listen, Bernie Sanders. This is just how politics works. It’s how politics has always worked, and will always work. It’s just human nature. You say you want to enact as many of your legislative priorities as possible. Literally the only way for you to do that is to drop out and endorse Joe Biden right now, while you still have something to offer him. If you follow the bad advice of your terrible advisers and remain in the race, you’ll be betraying every progressive principle you’ve ever claimed to care about. But if you drop out now, you’ll actually get a win out of this.
