February 22nd, 2020: Bernie's Final Win

As Bernie Sanders became a mostly-wholesome meme of admiration during the inauguration of Joe Biden---after the country survived a ridiculous election season followed by a horrible insurrection, a ridiculous coup attempt, and even assassination pleas towards people like Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez---I’m sure there were thousands of thoughts buzzing through his head.

I’m sure he was thinking about the coup attempt, about how far the country has fallen, about how badly the Republican Party had dissolved into terrorism, about how much time he has left on this Earth to make the dramatic changes he’s been trying to implement for decades, and about how cold it is in Washington D.C.. He’s probably also just itching to go back to work to start this new era post-Trump and post-MAGAts.

But I am sure another thought that was in his head at the time is just how wildly things changed from just a year ago, when he was in the lead, and was making strong efforts towards finally landing that nomination to run for president. Just a year ago, Bernie Sanders going up against Trump seemed like such a strong possibility and to certain progressives felt like an inevitability.

February 23rd, 2020 was a very good day for the Bernie Bros. and Progressives overall.

Bernie Sanders, after securing a technical victory in Iowa (The infamous Pete Buttigeg early victory claim was a nightmare conversation on Twitter) and then taking New Hampshire, almost took in 50% of the vote in Nevada the night before February 23rd. What was more impressive here was that unlike the previous states, there was much more diversity in the demographics. The Latino vote overwhelmingly went to Bernie, and he was even making strides in the Asian-American vote as well as support from the Muslim community. The Black community in Nevada still sided with Biden, but Bernie was a close second place.

It feels like an eternity ago, but at this point of time, this felt like we were finally getting closer to actually having a progressive candidate, we were closer to having a candidate that was crafting grandiose socialist ideas instead of attacking or just claiming he’s not Trump. What became a spirited run in 2016 over the years built up intense momentum towards the next election; and by the time we reached February 2020 he was the candidate with the most donations, the most money earned from donations, and was polling as the most popular candidate among independent voters. And, on this date he had a good lead and was polling strongly on the West Coast states where many more delegates can be found. He was even leading on social media, as being the most meme’d candidate outside of Trump.

Of course, his main obstacle was a Democratic Party that still doesn’t warm up to his methods and his more leftist beliefs, and of course time because of his well-advanced age. We had a plethora of last-minute additions to the race like Michael Bloomberg that poured out dozens of millions of dollars to wage political war against Bernie’s policies. We had several strong but not-as-leftist candidates choosing to participate because the majority of the major Democrats did not feel like Bernie Sanders was the solution to the MAGA problem---and they also knew that the primaries could very well provide a path to the nomination even when not getting the most votes. This is why Warren stayed in the race as long as she did even though she knew that she couldn’t win by delegate count prior to the caucus.

But after Nevada, this was honestly the last time things truly felt like were going to improve dramatically and we were going to usher a new era in politics that we so sorely needed. Bernie was no longer starting from scratch, he had The Squad, he had other progressives make great gains in the White House, he was receiving praise and support from many different corners of the political spectrum. Bernie’s youthful movement even among younger celebrities was a breath of fresh air, he was someone that was appealing to the next generation of Americans.

Bernie Sanders was surviving all the criticisms and controversies, from his ambitious ideas to his comments about Castro to the controversy about if he ever told Elizabeth Warren that a woman could not win the presidency.

Elizabeth Warren….man….ugh…anyway, back to the topic.

I was working at a coffee shop in Maitland the Monday after the Nevada win, which had a predominantly younger crowd of customers because of the nearby conferences. The vibe was very much positive, as I was working in pro-Bernie territory. Even though the news was mostly discussing what Covid was doing overseas, they also spent time discussing how Bernie Sanders was still in the lead, and the question was just how much longer can he continue the winning streak. It was fun to watch the rather shocked reactions to how Nevada turned out. Me and my brother were silently celebrating all day in between serving customers. It felt like the little guy, the underdog, was sticking it to the expectations of the pundits as Biden was the projected favorite yet remained a distant second place.

The mood was celebratory from the back-of-house to the patio outside the eatery; some of the regulars were gleaming and only wanted to talk Bernie, nothing else. We were anticipating Super Tuesday, which was going to be the big day that would truly determine just how far Bernie can go. We started pondering just how many of Bernie’s policies could pass in the White House, just how fast could we potentially see the changes once he steps in. Those of us on that coffee shop on that day felt like Bernie could destroy Trump in the general election. Whether it’s his strong policies, the ability to win over a crowd in many different conditions (watch him take on Fox News IN Fox News), or even his strong presence among independent voters, we felt like Bernie once everyone was allowed to vote would draw more than enough people from all parts of the country to defeat Trump and Trumpism.

Then everything happened. Just look at this:

Source of My Pain: Wikipedia

South Carolina became the breaking point for a majority of the remaining candidates and they all bent the knee towards Joe Biden at the very best moment for the former vice president. Instead of potentially splitting the votes all over the place throughout the 14 states and one lone territory amongst the similar candidates, Biden had the support of nearly every single candidate that had dropped out within the past month. It stopped being a wide-open field, it became Bernie Sanders vs. a Joe Biden that was backed by multiple prominent Democrats. Even after the more progressive candidates stopped running, Bernie still couldn’t find a single Dem candidate to back him, not even Andrew Yang. And worst of all, the second-most prominent progressive on the field, Elizabeth Warren, refused to endorse him.

Super Tuesday was a massacre. Even though Bernie Sanders would still score wins in California among other West Coast states, none of these wins would ever have the impact of Nevada, as Biden’s comeback was essentially complete with TEN states won, even in areas he didn’t campaign in.

Then of course, the pandemic exploded and took over all the news and took over all the hospitals. Now, campaigning would be an act of irresponsibility, and even discussing the election would be ignoring the quickly-growing tragedy that had been forming globally. Bernie Sanders ultimately became the final stand against Joe Biden and the Centrist Dems, the final candidate to fight the ghosts of the 1990s Democratic Party, fight the remains of the Obama Years. But he was far behind, and it was becoming increasingly dangerous to even step outside as clearly the worst of the coronavirus was yet to come, and it was also becoming more obvious that the Trump Administration was operating on pure unsupervised chaos—-spending several months downplaying a deadly pandemic because of an upcoming election.

It was such a good spirited run, and all of a sudden it was all gone; the momentum, the attention, the possibilities. On top of that, we had a pandemic, an economy that crashed, and the worst possible administration that refused to actually help us fight it in order to hang on to their political power. It has been nearly a year since the shutdowns began, and it feels as if we learned nothing as the pandemic continues to rage, and the deaths continue to pile up.

The political mystery is just what would have happened if the Democratic Party had not been so hesitant to openly accept Bernie, what would have a Bernie/Trump election looked like. What would have happened if Bernie had been allow to take his policies, ideas, and campaign into the political mainstream? What would have happened if on the very debates Bernie Sanders would tell Trump to his face the strategy Trump would pull to try to stir doubt towards the election results? And let’s be honest, most of us would love to know WHO would have been Bernie’s vice president?

Even with Bernie out of the picture, the same exact tactics were used as if he were running.

Joe Biden was still considered a dangerous Castro-loving socialist that wants to strip all your freedoms, and Kamala Harris suffered the same Obama-era racist accusations of not even being legal enough to run---and this was coming from some of the very same people that worked with her in the Senate. Through a series of bad decisions, unexpected turnout, and White America’s last strong push to keep White Supremacy in the White House, the Democrats lost seats at the House and barely etched out a win at the Senate after mostly ignoring the policies Bernie Sanders was campaigning strongly for, they ultimately won an election that had to be decided by minorities (as White Americans abandoned Joe Biden regardless and the minority turnout made GAINS for Donald Trump). All the political divisions and chaos we had supposedly feared with a Bernie nomination---happened regardless.

But those mysteries will linger forever, as after that Nevada primary everything fell apart, mostly through no fault of Bernie Sanders himself---from the extreme shift of support towards Joe Biden to the pandemic that completely damaged and altered the election season. As we go through Joe Biden’s first 100 days, we have definitely seen improvement from Trump and even more progress than expected. But the loss still stings, especially after how everything turned out, especially after just how much we persevered only to see the Trump Administration botch the pandemic during Bernie’s most crucial hours to wage a final stand.   

But during that week that followed Bernie’s dominant Nevada win, progressives all over the country really felt good, really felt like the change we had been anticipating since Obama’s first term was finally inching closer and closer. That week in February was a moment of possibilities, a moment of gleeful anticipation. Before the world turned to a tornado of unexpected chaos and illness and death, we were seeing a bright light in the form of unexpectedly leading the Democratic primaries. That bright light may shine again in the future, but as of now we are left with recovering from what has been an extremely trying year, especially for those who saw the final chance of their progressive leader slip away in a month of overbearing emerging obstacles political and global.

Even with Bernie Sanders in full budget control in the Senate, even with Bernie wearing mittens that were lovingly made for him specifically, the victories seem hollow here, because of what it could have really been.

The world seemed bright on that February Sunday morning back in 2020.

And personally, I haven’t felt that sensation of satisfaction since.