The Real Work for Sanders Supporters Is Just Beginning

There are still many states left to vote in the 2020 Democratic primary election, but the outcome now looks all but certain. Following a series of catastrophic losses in states such as Michigan and Missouri, and facing big deficits in the polls in coming states, Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign has very little chance of victory. Sanders’s so-called political revolution, centered on far-reaching plans for single-payer health care, free college, bans on fossil fuels and nuclear power, and a revamp of the U.S. economic system, looks as if it has been put on hold. This result mirrors those in a number of European countries, including the crushing defeats suffered by the U.K.’s Jeremy Corbyn and French left-wing leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Sanders’s followers, however, have much with which to console themselves. Sanders managed to move the Democratic field well to the left on policy, with even moderate front-runner Joe Biden promising a Green New Deal, supporting a so-called public option for health insurance and calling for a $15 federal minimum wage. And Sanders garnered overwhelming support among young Democrats, suggesting that his brand of progressivism is the future of the party, even if some of his supporters age into more moderate views.