Sanders was Sanders: old, cranky, and a Communist-in-all-but-name. Everybody else? Forget them, they’re going nowhere.
Harris helped her case, Biden hurt his. Unlike 2016, this time Sanders isn’t the only alternative to the party’s standard-bearer. Warren has the same free-everything message and seems younger, fresher, and less cranky.
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I’ve argued the lesson Democrats should have learned from the 2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential elections is that nominating a non-white is the only way to reenergize the Obama coalition, selecting a white woman in 2016 didn’t work. Given the front-runner status of Biden, Sanders, and Warren, it appears the lesson hasn’t sunk in.
The alternative theory is that Obama was a one-time, first-time-only phenomenon and not repeatable. It appears this theory is what the party leadership believes, they may be correct. Black voters’ outcomes under Obama weren’t wonderful, they’ve lived better during Trump’s 3 years.
One could argue that Dems should select Harris, the most visible and articulate of its aspirants of color. However, Biden’s apparently accurate claim that he was (albeit briefly) a public defender while she was a career prosecutor could weigh heavily with black voters who view the criminal justice system as their implacable enemy.
I am forced to conclude that victimology is a tricky organizing principle for a political party.
