With Bernie's profoundly sorrowful and disappointing withdrawal from the primary yesterday, progressives may be thinking of licking their wounds and plotting for a battle another day. However, that would be a mistake.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bernie has dropped-out and the sorrow and self-reflection has begun. Surveying the situation, there are really only two options being considered in the progressive movement at the moment, it seems:

Push Biden to make meaningful concessions, give Bernie's campaign some cabinet appointments, commitments on legislation etc.

OR

Try to create a People's Party and create pressure to draft him to either this new party or to lead the existing Green Party ticket and #DemExit.

The first option is what would be considered the most sober and realistic, and is effectively the standard model for American Democratic politics after the primary, moving in to the General. The problem is that within the Establishment there is a pervasive delusion that no demands need to be met, progressive's have nowhere to go, and will, by and large when the metal hits the road, vote for Biden to avoid four more of Trump. They also believe, according to their abusive politics of shaming, coercing and slandering that they can simply force Bernie to rally all over the country to drive voters because he's a nice guy and will do what it takes. And so, while it may be that Biden's surrounded himself with people that have more strategic, sober intelligence that Hillary did in 2016 (when she went out of her way to disregard progressive's who supported Bernie with Tim Kaine and Chuck Schumer 'strategy' of the affluent suburban voter...), it seems unlikely that the Democratic establishment that sees Biden as their empty vessel, and that spent the entire primary working with their media allies to defeat the insurgent Sanders campaign will make any meaningful concessions. In any case, the core logic of this basically boils down to: what really frightened the establishment wasn't specifically Bernie's progressive agenda (although that sent shivers on its own) but Bernie himself, as Organizer in Chief, breaking the 30-year grifting parasitism between DC organizations, think tanks, lobbyists and taking issues directly to the people, organizing primary challenges to incumbent House and Senate seats...So, its possible, plausible, but by no means a certainty. Do we really want to be willingly naive, gamble, and predictably be betrayed, again and again, and again...?

The second option is simply not going to happen with Bernie. If Bernie were willing to risk becoming a Ralph Nader and a political outcast he would have done it in 2016. He obviously feels that this would guarantee Trump's reelection, first, and, second, would not benefit his conception of the progressive movement's most viable pathway to building enduring power. We can disagree on whether the trade-off of taking two steps back with four more years of Trump vs the institutional power that could be created by having a Third Party with 5%+ of the vote and federal funds, but it's perfectly plausible to believe that the more effective strategy is to continue to colonize the Democratic Party and rely on demographic shifts that should naturally support that take-over to 'bend the arc of justice' to progressive's direction. The idea, at this point, that Bernie will join a Third Party is an opiating pipe-dream. On the other hand, a #DemExit without Bernie leading the Green Party ticket risks the re-election of Trump for the possibility only of reaching that 5%+ viability (no chance to win). But the question of a Third Party is more an issue for the General election rather than this moment.

Which brings us to the one option beyond these two that no one seems to be (seriously, at least) considering:

Progressive's continue to organize GOTV by mail and (if the virus subsides in a month or so, and primaries have been postponed rationally) in-person with the goal not simply of accumulating delegates that will surpass 1200 and allow Sanders's campaign a say in the platform created at the convention; but reassert ourselves and organize with the intention of accumulating a majority of delegates.

This is admittedly a long shot, but it's not as long as the second option; it is also doesn't seem at first blush as sober and realistic as the first option. However, objectively, this is the only option available to Sanders's movement that has any actual chance of accomplishing anything meaningful. Bernie may not want to continue running, may have been pressured by Obama to drop out, might think any further chances of winning depend on him escalating his attacks on Biden that might undermine Biden in the General in November etc; but this option does not depend on him: it depends on the ability, capability, willingness, seriousness and belief of the movement he catalyzed to, effectively, carry Bernie across the goal line, in an act of organized insubordination, whether he wants it or not. In this way, the remaining 26-primaries in which to vote become not just a performative form of placebo democracy (giving Sanders's supporters the chance to stage a nearly meaningless vote for the Senator), but the opportunity for the movement that has arisen around Bernie to prove itself worthy of the title of movement by filling the vacuum left by the Senator to organize itself despite his own wishes to exercise its most basic democratic pressure function. Thinking strategically, even if it is unsuccessful, this is also the only way in which the Establishment will take Sanders's demands seriously.

This moment, far from being the depressing, politically neutered moment that it might appear to be is the single greatest opportunity for us to prove to ourselves that we are capable of doing the really hard work that's required to function as a movement beyond the limits of a campaign. It is not enough to talk about 'how are we going to continue the movement after Bernie?' or 'how can we ensure that our movement continues to grow in the future?' Asking these questions at this moment, when there is still an active primary underway is a convenient way of eschewing responsibility, placating oneself that they are still doing the work of building the movement by taking the time to think it all through that just perpetuates our pundit culture that has so atrophied politics in this country.

Bernie's name on that ballot is a placeholder. It is a placeholder for all of the people who believe in the America that we and Bernie have been fighting for throughout this primary. And while #NotMeUs has always told us that Bernie's campaign has never been about him, now is actually the moment we prove to ourselves that this wasn't a convenient act of self-serving delusion. There are 26-primaries left to vote in, millions of motivated people that believe in a progressive agenda and have been willing to fight for it, incredible leaders like Nina Turner who can help us organize. And, like a gift from God, we've already got nearly 1000-delegates and several more months to organize. We may have been telling ourselves this for years already, but now is literally the moment. There may never be an opportunity like this for generations. We better figure this out now, shake off our exhaustion and virus apathy, save the #DemExit debate for later, and act boldly. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Let's become the movement we know we can become.

Solidarity, brothers and sisters!

P.S. Life is not an Onion article. But it could be.