Bernie will have to accept the inevitable and drop out

It is a little surprising that Bernie Sanders is still intent on hanging on in the race for the White House. Some of his advisers are telling him to stay and I guess the reasoning is this: if Biden wins the nomination, all the efforts made towards changing the United States into a caring, sharing, welfare-rich country will go by the way side if a centrist politician is in charge. There is no way Joe Biden will suddenly become socialist-minded in order to grab Sanders' supporters even though he has made comforting noises, such as "I'm hearing you." I hate that expression in the political context because it doesn't mean what it sounds like. Biden is just trying to woo socialist-favouring voters to his side by hinting that he will take on board Bernie's hopes and dreams. But that's not the way it works. If you come second, you are nothing else but the runner-up who lost. Why should Biden change his views to be nice to Bernie? Well, actually it would be wonderfully sensible if Biden DID absorb some Bernie ideas into his campaign messages. But on the other hand if the majority of voters don't want a Bernie Utopia, then there's not much point in trying to go half measures, a bit of Joe and a bit of Bernie to try and please everyone. Compromises like that rarely work, although Biden has suggested Bernie's Medicare for all has merits. All of this, of course, is somewhat peripheral right now because of the spread of coronavirus. So much federal money is being allocated to combat it and cushion the impact by pumping money into the economy that high-flown ideas about a socialist health system on the lines of the UK's national health service will get shunted to one side. While one can sympathise with Bernie Sanders who has to resign himself to never being president of the United States, it must be time for him to confront reality and drop out of the race and give his backing to Joe Biden. As I wrote in a previous blog, the Democrats probably have a better chance than ever before of unseating a sitting president, largely because of coronavirus and its apalling economic consequences. So a continuing Biden/Sanders battle makes little sense. Joe is now the man, the chosen one, and the Democrats as a whole need to get behind him. Then everyone can focus on the Joe and Donald battle.