Sanders Could Hardly Give Trump a Bigger Gift

For some time, Bernie Sanders has had no chance at becoming the Democrats’ presidential candidate. Now he is officially accepting the obvious and pulling out of the race. But whoever thinks that he will now support Joe Biden is mistaken. Just as before, Sanders only cares about one thing.

Those who heard the words Bernie Sanders used to announce that he was stepping down as a Democratic candidate for president could hardly believe their ears. He spent several minutes thanking the supporters of his “unprecedented grassroots campaign.”

It was an exhaustive list. Finally, the left-wing senator from Vermont even thanked the musicians who played at his rallies.

But above all, Sanders’ speech was about him, about his achievements, about the political relevance of the political campaign that he led. Pretty egotistical for a man who entered the race with the battle cry, “Not me. Us.”

Most of what he said came from his standard campaign speech, the same speech he has been giving since 1978 and 1981. America may change, the world may turn at breakneck speed, but Sanders still stands where he has always stood; that is all he can do. A programmatic standstill in a time of change.

It is rare for leftists to be so conservative. Nonetheless, he managed to say a few words about the coronavirus crisis. And, angry egotist that he is, Sanders is, of course, correct in criticizing the dysfunctional health care system in the United States.

It is doubtful whether abolishing all private insurance and introducing a public health care system is the right idea at the right time, however. Not even Sanders from Burlington, Vermont, will make the U.S. more of a social state and more statist than Germany or the Scandinavian countries already are.

On Tuesday evening, Sanders spoke, above all, about Sanders, and a little about Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. He mentioned Joe Biden almost incidentally, describing him as a “decent guy.” It’s worth mentioning that Biden has won so many delegates in the primaries to date that Sanders’ candidacy for president had no chance. Now Sanders wants to “work together” with Biden. Really now!

But anyone who expected that Sanders would express any honest appreciation of Biden or endorse him, or even deliver a rousing appeal for everyone to sincerely support Biden at this moment was disappointed.

Sanders still wants to compete for votes in several primaries so he can make a strong showing with as many delegates as possible at the Democratic National Convention. He wants to demonstrate the power of his ideology and dictate to Biden that he should adopt as many of Sanders’ left-wing ideas as part of Biden’s platform as he can.

How Sanders will convince his sometimes dogmatic and uncompromising followers to swear their allegiance to Biden (does he even want to?) thus remains entirely unclear. What is the presidential election on Nov. 3 about, again?

The Democrats do not want to crown their presidential candidate until August. With Sanders’ strategy, the party’s internal power struggle, which has been underway for more than a year, will thus drag on for the next five full months. That would leave a mere 11 weeks for the much more important confrontation with the gifted campaigner and demagogue Donald Trump.

In every speech, Sanders characterizes Trump as “the most dangerous president in American history.” With his disgruntled ego trip, Sanders could hardly be giving this president a greater gift.