I have a regular gig on WSVA radio out of Harrisonburg, Virginia, talking about politics.
This show was deliberately scheduled to be the day after Super Tuesday. My expectation is that the big story will be that Joe Biden did a great deal better than anyone would have imagined even five days ago. (Carrying Virginia, for one thing.)
I also expect also that it will be proposed that the rallying around Joe Biden represents “the Establishment” of the Democratic Party trying to block Bernie Sanders because he’s too “progressive” for the “moderates” who comprise that “Establishment.”
If that idea is proposed, I plan to disagree. Not to deny that there’s anything at all to it, but rather to say that’s not the main thing going on.
We’ve been hearing from friends and family who have nothing to do with “the Establishment,” and who are voting for Biden not because he is moderate, and Sanders is too progressive. Indeed, some of them are pretty far to the left on the issues.
Rather, they say that they’re voting for Biden because they fear that if Sanders is the nominee he will lose and lose badly. And in this election, winning is essential.
(With Trump vying for re-election, a whole lot of Democrats of various ideological stripes are seeing this as a VinceLombardian election– Vince Lombardi being the famous coach of the Green Bay Packers who is said to have said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”)
Which will give me the opportunity to say, to an audience of which a substantial portion is conservative, why preventing Donald Trump from winning a second term — especially in view of all the dictatorial tendencies he’s displayed since he beat the impeachment trial and emerged feeling above the law — is such an over-riding concern for millions of Americans who love their country.
(And which will make at least a miniscule contribution to blunting what I fear that Sanders and his following may do to the party’s chances if Sanders is not the nominee.)
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