Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is being urged to drop out of the Democratic presidential race after getting trounced yet again in the latest round of primaries by former Vice President Joe Biden.
And Sanders may not be handling the pressure well on the surface, but some political pundits believe he’s still winning.
Even if he has to drop out of the race, which is incredibly likely.
Sanders and the other far-left candidate – Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who dropped out earlier this month – have succeeded in forcing Biden so far to the left that he’s adapting many of their policies to appease the socialist wing of the party.
And he now risks alienating middle America – and could pay the price at the ballot box in November as a result.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jacob M. Schlesinger wrote this week that Biden has been pushed further to the left than 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton on many of today’s key issues including taxes, health care, climate change and labor rights.
“Mr. Biden proposes tax and spending increases equivalent to 1.5% of U.S. gross domestic product, more than double the level Mrs. Clinton advocated four years ago,” he wrote.
Emily Larsen of the Washington Examiner agreed, calling Biden “the most liberal nominee in modern history due to pressure from far-left candidates and activists creating a new standard of normal.”
Biden doesn’t support so-called Medicare for all, the Green New Deal or free college for everyone, like the far-left candidates he vanquished.
But on each of those issues, he’s moved further from the centrist position and closer to Sanders.
He now wants to create a vast public option, or so-called “Medicare for all who want it.” He’s adapted the Warren and Sanders plans for education to offer free tuition for people in certain income groups, a move that would cost taxpayers billions.
And he will no doubt advocate one of the most expensive climate policies of all time.
“Though Sanders and Warren lost the Democratic presidential race, they may have won the party’s ideological war,” Larsen wrote in the Examiner.
Those on the far left agree.
“Even if Bernie didn’t get his revolution, you might say that at least he’s gotten a bit of a rebellion,” wrote Kevin Drum, blogger for the far-left Mother Jones website. “Given the political inertia of a country the size of the United States, that’s not bad.”
But for many Americans, especially independent and swing state voters, those policies are a no-go.
They rejected Clinton four years ago as too far to the left.
With Biden pushed further, even those critical of Trump may decide it’s best to stick with him… especially if they want to keep their healthcare plans intact. While polls do show increased support for Medicare for all, the overwhelming majority of Americans still want a system that allows them to keep what they have now.
The Kaiser Family Foundation found earlier this year that 68 percent would like the status quo plus a public option expansion.
And that means they could end up backing Trump, especially when they see Biden swinging further left than Clinton and proposing skyrocketing government spending in a year where we’re already battling a financial crisis.
So Sanders may have won the battle. But the Democrats could lose the war at the ballot box as a result.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”