Before Biden became president-elect, he faced primary challengers from all ends of the ideological spectrum. Despite all this, Bernie endorsed him and his policies; I don’t think he should have. 

DNC Rigged Primary

At the time of 2016, it’s no secret that the DNC (The Democratic national committee)  establishment had hostility towards Bernie. While purporting to be a neutral organization through the primary it was effectively controlled by Hillary’s campaign.. The most damning evidence came from the Wikileaks release and Donna Brazile’s (Interim chair of the DNC) own admission, revealing that she leaked debate questions to Hillary. Brazile also said the DNC was $24 million dollars in debt and it was paid off by the Clinton campaign. In exchange for that, the Hillary campaign would have joint control over the DNC’s budget, staff, expenditures, and analytics. Clinton also had full control over the Hillary victory fund, it was  supposed to be a DNC controlled fund for the DNC and state races. However,  Clinton funneled the money to pay off the DNC’s debts as well as spring on her own campaign. Unethically, this was launched in 2015 and existed throughout the primary. It’s not just the elections, but the media as well.The mass media’s filters of what it chooses to publish and not to publish are  one of the facets used to maintain the capitalist hegemony. Firstly, the ownership of mass media is exclusively that of the bourgeoisie class; they ensure the reporting of their company is in line with what they believe. Secondly, since these companies run on for profit models, for them, advertising is prioritized over quality reporting” For CNN and MSNBC, their top contributors are uniform in thought and mind. To any who dare challenge its power, they will discredit and smear. That’s exactly what they did to Bernie.  

Left will take the Blame in Any Scenario 

Despite all the DNC’s election meddling in 2016, they refused to take responsibility. In leaked DNC emails, the DNC’s top press secretary wanted to change the narrative about the race. He wrote, “there was no DNC conspiracy, it’s because they never had their act together.” Still,  last year Hillary said Bernie was a “puppet of the Russians.” Despite Bernie holding 39 rallies in 13 states for Hillary, it was never enough support for her. The mainstream democratic party tried to shift the narrative, such as by convincing people that Bernie voters somehow helped Trump. Statistically, this is false; in fact, less Bernie voters voted for Trump than Hillary voters did for Mccain in 2008. 

In the 2020 Election it is more of the same. The Democrtic strategy was  all wrong, seeking to win over “moderate republicans” and reject progressive ideals. Fully embracing the Lincoln project doctrine, the party leadership runded asutdougin amounts almost $7 Billion.  Still Trump increased his Republican votes by 3 points and got clobbered in the senate. Now comes the fateful decision who will Biden listen to? John Kasich (GOP ex- Ohio governor), who attacked the “far left” for  almost losing the election. Worth noted he couldn’t even deliver his home state to the Democrats, in fact he lost it by 8 points. Or, Rashida Talib who helped deliver Michigan to Biden by contracting over 200,000 voters and securing the pivotal Muslim vote that pushed Biden over the edge. I think you know who he will choose. We also know every single incumbent who supported Medicare for all won re-election, even in red leaning districts. The 2020 strategy of “Trump Bad” didn’t work out so well for democrats.

Policy Concessions 

I don’t think Bernie should have endorsed Biden across the board, but rather he should have gotten meaningful policy concessions in exchange for his support. Bernie had the opportunity to send Biden a list of demands, even if he doesn’t pledge support for all of it. This is preferable to these so-called “unity commissions” that are just formalites. The real question is, what if Biden or the corporate Democrats say no to these demands? For the sake of progressive policy the simple alternative is not to support Biden. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have voted for Biden. Objectively Trump is the greater evil if every issue is compared between them, so a damage reduction argument is very valid. But progressives wasted their time lifting a finger to help Biden win the white house unless they achieved real concessions.