The Pandemic Makes the Bernie 2020 Campaign More Vital Than Ever

[Uncle Joe]

Pressure on Bernie Sanders to quit the presidential race is intensifying. Over the weekend, the Washington Post splashed a major story under the headline "Some Top Sanders Advisers Urge Him to Consider Withdrawing." While sheltering at home, comedian Larry David couldn’t curb his enthusiasm for an end to the campaign, telling a New York Times columnist: "I feel he should drop out. Because he’s too far behind. He can’t get the nomination."

OK, at this point it’s highly unlikely—though still possible—that Sanders can gain enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee. But the Bernie 2020 campaign has never been only about winning. It has always also been about strengthening vital progressive movements while widening public discourse and political space.

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Yet now, to hear mass media and the party establishment tell it, Sanders should immediately cease expanding the public discourse during this election cycle. Demands that Sanders quit the race are getting louder by the day—insisting that he function like a traditional politician rather than a movement candidate.

But those calls for normal political behavior are coming at a time when conditions are anything but normal. The coronavirus pandemic is a truly unprecedented life-and-death emergency on a scale so vast that it’s difficult to comprehend. The conditions—and timeworn assumptions—that have made it so deadly in the United States go far beyond the criminal negligence of top officials in the Trump administration.

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https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/06/pandemic-makes-bernie-2020-campaign-more-vital-ever-0