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By C.J. Atkins
Super Tuesday II was another round of victories for Joe Biden. Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, and Idaho were added to his column on March 10; as of this writing, only North Dakota went for Bernie Sanders, and Washington state is still counting. After two tough weeks at the polls and with endorsements from elected officials rolling in for Biden, there are increasing calls for the socialist from Vermont to close up shop and head back to Burlington. But there are many big reasons that Bernie shouldn’t call it quits, at least not yet.
We can start with the numbers game. When it comes to the delegate count, there are only 164 separating the two candidates right now, with over 2,000 more still to be awarded. There’s no need to peddle false hope, though. With so many shockers in this race so far, nothing is certain, but it’s more than an uphill battle for Sanders at this point. If current trends and turnout patterns hold, he won’t go to the Democratic convention with the most delegates and thus won’t secure the nomination.
But it’s not just about the battle for the nomination—it’s also about the battle of ideas. And in the fight for determining what ideas make it into the Democratic platform in Milwaukee this summer, delegate numbers matter. The longer Sanders stays in the race and the more he works to expand his voter base (which admittedly shows some major limitations, particularly in its narrow hold among African-American voters), the more delegates he’ll have on the platform committee, the rules committee, and all the internal bodies that determine Democratic Party policy.
In 2016, thanks in large part to the Sanders delegates at the convention, the party went into the election with its most progressive platform ever. A $15 minimum wage, debt-free college, expanded Medicare, community health center funding, the revival of Glass-Stegall regulations on the big banks...
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