What happened
Panicked moderate Democrats were
hoping for a single centrist savior
to emerge this week after Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ landslide victory in
the Nevada caucus made him the un-
disputed front-runner in the race. After
Sanders’ triumph, House Majority Whip
Jim Clyburn of South Carolina moved to
throw his considerable sway in his home
state behind former Vice President Joe
Biden ahead of this Saturday’s primary,
which Biden hopes to win with major
African-American support and revive
his campaign. “We know Joe,” Clyburn
said. “More importantly, Joe knows
us.” At a debate in Charleston, Sanders’
moderate rivals sought to slow his momentum, casting him as a
far-left extremist whose praise for Communist regimes and support
for policies like “Medicare for All” would alienate vast swaths of
the electorate. “Sen. Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological
revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most
Americans,” said former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Sanders’ victory in Nevada followed his first- and second-place
finishes in New Hampshire and Iowa and saw him win nearly
47 percent of the vote, or more than double that of his closest rival,
Biden, who had 20.2. Buttigieg finished third with 14.3 percent
and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) fourth with 9.7 percent. In
victory, Sanders trumpeted the “multigenerational, multiracial”
coalition that fueled his Nevada win, including surprising support
of 53 percent among Hispanics and 27 percent among African-
Americans. “It’s going to sweep the country,” Sanders said.
Centrist Democrats’ hopes that billionaire Michael Bloomberg
could be the one to stop Sanders faded after Bloomberg badly
stumbled during a debate in Nevada. He seemed stunned and
hesitant when Warren and other rivals attacked his stop-and-frisk
policy as New York City mayor and brought up allegations of
sexism by women employees of his company. In the South Carolina
debate, Bloomberg trained his fire on
Sanders, warning that nominating a
socialist would guarantee President
Trump’s reelection and cost Democrats
the House and state legislatures. “Then,
between gerrymandering and appoint-
ing judges, for the next 20 or 30 years,
we’re going to live with this catastro-
phe,” Bloomberg said.
What the editorials said
Democrats have no one to blame but
themselves, said The Wall Street Journal.
For weeks, the candidates have largely
given Sanders a pass during the debates,
failing to challenge his extreme policies,
such as banning private health insurance
and fracking; raising taxes on the middle
class; and hiking federal spending by
$60 trillion. If Sanders is the nominee,
“every down-ballot Democrat” will be
burdened with the socialist label.
It’s far too early to panic, said the
Tampa Bay Times of Florida. “Only
three small states have voted so
far,” and the combined number of
people who voted in those caucuses
is smaller than even the turnout
from a typical midsize city. Bloom-
berg hasn’t even been on the ballot
yet. Democrats should “take a deep
breath” and see what voters decide
on Super Tuesday, March 3, when
more than a third of all delegates
will be up for grabs.What the columnists said
Sanders isn’t winning primaries be-
cause of his specific policy proposals,
said Ezra Klein in Vox.com. What sets him apart from his more
mainstream opponents is his “animating belief that our political
and economic system is unjust.” Like Donald Trump in 2016 and
the Tea Party in 2010, Sanders is running on anger at Washington’s
indifference to ordinary working people.To stop Sanders, all but one of the moderates must drop out of the
race, said Gabriel Debenedetti in NYMag.com. But it won’t hap-
pen. They’re all still clinging to the belief they have a path to vic-
tory, however slim. The Democratic establishment and party giants
like Barack Obama are not making an organized effort “to shrink
the field.” Only a negative ad blitz by Bloomberg against Sanders
might dent him badly enough to prevent the Vermont senator from
winning a majority of delegates.The writers of those attack ads will have no shortage of material,
said Jim Geraghty in NationalReview.com. Sanders was 38 when
he joined the Socialist Workers Party, which declared in 1980 that
many of the American hostages in Iran were “simply spies.” He
has admitted he was 39 when he received his first steady paycheck,
as mayor of Burlington, Vt. At 44, he called for “public owner-
ship” of oil companies, factories, utilities, and banks, and traveled
to Nicaragua, where he took part in a rally in which the crowd
chanted, “The Yankee will die.” Just
this week, he lauded Cuban dicta-
tor Fidel Castro for launching “a
massive literacy program” after the
revolution. If Sanders wins, Demo-
crats can forget about Florida, which
has 1.5 million Cuban refugees.A Sanders nomination would also
be a disaster for Democrats’ “new,
fragile” House majority, said David
Frum in TheAtlantic.com. The party
won 40 seats in the 2018 midterms
by appealing to moderates—
particularly “older, college-educated,
conservative-leaning women” from
the suburbs sick of Trump’s outra-
geous language and behavior. Good
luck getting these crucial voters to
vote for big tax increases, public
health insurance, and “admiration
for Fidel Castro.” ReutersSanders, Biden in South Carolina: It got very nasty.THE WEEK March 6, 2020
4 NEWS The main stories...
Moderates seek to stall Sanders’ momentum
Illustration by Howard McWilliam.
Cover photos from AP (2), ReutersWhat next?
Sanders’ rivals have tipped their hands, said Matt
Stevens in The New York Times. They are now go-
ing to “roll the dice” and hope that Sanders does
not reach the decisive 1,991 pledged delegates
count before the convention in July. They re-
vealed their thinking toward the end of the Nevada
debate, when NBC’s Chuck Todd asked them if
the candidate with the most delegates—but not
51 percent—at the start of the convention should be
crowned the nominee. Only Sanders said yes; the
others “some version of ‘No, let the process work’
or ‘Play by the rules.’” If Sanders doesn’t arrive
at the convention with the nomination in hand,
771 super delegates—mostly party insiders—will
vote on the second ballot; in theory, they could co-
alesce around one of Sanders’ moderate rivals. It’s
not likely to happen—but it may be the moderates’
best chance to stop him.