Just yesterday, to the dismay of many “BernieBros,” Bernard Sanders dropped out of the 2020 democratic primary. The battle against neoliberal candidate, Joe Biden, was hard fought but since the last few states voted in the primary, it seemed this moment was inevitable. Sanders viability has gone down a lot in recent weeks, especially because of the fact that he has diverted his campaign funding to help with the coronavirus pandemic since it started becoming a large problem in the U.S.  Many Bernie supporters have shown frustration over the course of this primary, with the odds seemingly stacked against the candidate due to the mainstream media and the DNC being opposed to him. Especially after the 2016 primary when it was found later through leaks that the DNC was essentially an arm of the Hillary campaign, and had pretty much rigged the primary. There is a growing sentiment among Bernie supporters that he has been treated unfairly in this primary as well, although it is unsubstantiated thus far if anything close to the events of 2016 has taken place.

For a start, the media was extremely anti Bernie, seemingly for anything, whether it be his status of being a “old straight white man,” which Joe Biden is just as much of, and is also a cynical and obvious disregard of his Jewish identity. Or whether it be that he’s “not electable,”  a claim which was completely baseless as all polls seem to indicate that against Donald Trump, he would do the best. Or that his ideas are “too radical.” To put it in perspective, whether one agrees with him or not, Bernie Sanders is a Social Democrat, meaning in any European country or Canada, he is basically a milquetoast centrist. The point being that the media went after him in every way they could, to an unfair extent, while propping up just about every neoliberal candidate in the race.

Another controversial part of the race was how votes were counted. Delegates in the Iowa caucus had been decided with superfluous coin flips, and deliberately wrong math was found in the counting. The DNC  refused to correct this math that was literally and objectively incorrect by all measures, because it would somehow violate the sanctity of the system. This ended with both Bernie, and Buttigiege claiming victory, despite Bernie having both the popular vote, and delegate plurality. Super Tuesday was also a huge deal, former president Barack Obama called Pete Buttigiege and Amy Klobuchar and told them to drop out and endorse Biden the day before. They did so, and essentially gave him their votes. Then was Elizabeth Warren, who many have dubbed “The Snake.” Despite knowing she was no longer viable, Warren stayed in the race through Super Tuesday, split the progressive vote, and essentially acted as a spoiler candidate, losing Bernie multiple states. She dropped out immediately after. President Trump even acknowledged this, saying in a tweet “Bernie Sanders is OUT! Thank you to Elizabeth Warren. If not for her, Bernie would have won almost every state on Super Tuesday! This ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the crooked Hillary fiasco”.

Whether one believes that Sanders was treated unfairly or not, his efforts were not wasted. His campaign has shifted the overton window on countless issues such as free public college, medicare for all, and many others. While Sanders may not ever get to be president, this marks a change in politics toward a time in which progressive and social democratic views are much more accepted in American Society.