Sanders Movement: Does it Have Staying Power?

Senator Bernie Sanders has suspended his campaign. He has vowed to the reality that he trails Joe Biden in both the delegate and popular vote count. Voters in Democratic Primaries across the nation decided that Vice-President Joe Biden was far more electable than Sanders. Even when they agreed with quite a bit of the Sanders program.

People are far more concerned about getting rid of Donald Trump, and electability played a large role in this. The present crisis is also changing American life and politics forever. It offers a rare opportunity for Trump to consolidate power and bury the American system, and lord knows he is doing his level best to do that. This fact may be playing a role in how the primary developed. People are more concerned about getting rid of Trump than they are about reform.

However, the reaction among a small, but rather vocal, group of Sanders voters brings into stark focus a critical question. Can the movement survive into the future? This is not an idle question. Some, I have no doubt, will leave the Democratic Party, and seek to create a third party. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the American system, this will defuse the movement. If a large majority of Sanders voters decide to take that path, then the effect of the movement in American politics will be fleeting at best.

Granted, the social media environment is one where the loudest voices are usually the least capable of self-reflection. They are also getting very angry when many of us tell them that…