The far left of the Democratic Party was reeling Tuesday night after hitting an iceberg known as the electorate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has campaigned for president under the label of democratic socialism, found himself losing to former Vice President Joe Biden in Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho. The results put Biden firmly in the lead.
“There’s no sugarcoating it, tonight’s a tough night,” Sanders acolyte and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said in an Instagram Live video, according to Fox News.
“Tonight’s a tough night for the movement overall.”
Ocasio-Cortez noted that older voters rejected the movement with which she is aligned.
AI power players pour cash into competitive primaries as 2026 midterms heat up
Shutdown clock ticks as Schumer, Democrats dig in on DHS funding demands
Watch: Acting ICE Director Thwarts Eric Swalwell’s ‘Gotcha Question’ During Hearing
Watch: Bench-Clearing Brawl Throws NBA Game Into Chaos, Leads to 4 Ejections
DHS says illegal immigrant injured head after hitting concrete wall while fleeing ICE, denies beating claims
Fact Check: Did Bad Bunny Feature Viral 5-Year-Old Liam Ramos in Super Bowl Halftime Show?
DHS urges Newsom to honor ICE detainers after federal agent assaulted while arresting illegal alien at jail
Supreme Court Justice Alito says ‘things are so different’ since Scalia’s death
Clinton Judge Responds to California’s Attempts to Unmask ICE Agents
China panics after Takaichi declares intention to remilitarize Japan
Only one local detective on Nancy Guthrie case has over two years of experience on homicide squad: sources
Trump thanked Florida police for Epstein probe in 2000s, flagged ‘evil’ Ghislaine Maxwell: FBI doc
Progressive backed by Sanders, AOC pulls off upset ballot box shocker in Democratic congressional primary
US Skier Lindsey Vonn Reveals Extent of Her Injuries After Brutal Crash Ends Her Olympics — And Possibly Career
Who Would Have Guessed? Transit Agency in Cold-Weather State Buys EV Buses, Can’t Use Them in Freezing Cold
“If you are looking a little bit deeper beyond the polls in terms of what this means for the movement at large, I think there’s a lot of information that we have here that we can kind of glean from,” she said. “One thing that’s important in these results — and this is something that I’ve been sensing a lot in my time here — is the generational divide in these results.
“Older voters,” she said, “which we know are much more reliable voters, which turn out, have decisively gone to former Vice President Biden.”
“”What is surprising is how stark it actually is. We’re not talking about a generational bump or a little bit of an edge. It is decisively different,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Writing in New York magazine, Jonathan Chait said Sanders never understood why he appeared popular in 2016, and progressives have misread the nation ever since.
“The second Sanders campaign has shown conclusively how badly the left misunderstood the electorate. It is not just that Sanders has failed to inspire anything like the upsurge in youth turnout he promised, or that he has failed to make meaningful headway with black voters,” he wrote.
AI power players pour cash into competitive primaries as 2026 midterms heat up
Shutdown clock ticks as Schumer, Democrats dig in on DHS funding demands
Watch: Acting ICE Director Thwarts Eric Swalwell’s ‘Gotcha Question’ During Hearing
Watch: Bench-Clearing Brawl Throws NBA Game Into Chaos, Leads to 4 Ejections
DHS says illegal immigrant injured head after hitting concrete wall while fleeing ICE, denies beating claims
Fact Check: Did Bad Bunny Feature Viral 5-Year-Old Liam Ramos in Super Bowl Halftime Show?
DHS urges Newsom to honor ICE detainers after federal agent assaulted while arresting illegal alien at jail
Supreme Court Justice Alito says ‘things are so different’ since Scalia’s death
Clinton Judge Responds to California’s Attempts to Unmask ICE Agents
China panics after Takaichi declares intention to remilitarize Japan
Only one local detective on Nancy Guthrie case has over two years of experience on homicide squad: sources
Trump thanked Florida police for Epstein probe in 2000s, flagged ‘evil’ Ghislaine Maxwell: FBI doc
Progressive backed by Sanders, AOC pulls off upset ballot box shocker in Democratic congressional primary
US Skier Lindsey Vonn Reveals Extent of Her Injuries After Brutal Crash Ends Her Olympics — And Possibly Career
Who Would Have Guessed? Transit Agency in Cold-Weather State Buys EV Buses, Can’t Use Them in Freezing Cold
“White working-class and rural voters have swung heavily against him. In Missouri and Michigan, those voters turned states he closely contested four years ago into routs for his opponent.”
Chait suggested Sanders connected with young voters, but not really anyone else.
That was seconded by an analysis from Sahil Kapur on NBC News.
“Sanders’ prospects hinged on young progressives’ turning out in droves to overwhelm their older moderate-leaning counterparts. That didn’t happen on Super Tuesday, and it didn’t happen on ‘Super Tuesday II,’ either,” he wrote.
“The key dividing line in the primary season has been age, with millennials and Gen Z voters overwhelmingly backing Sanders, while older generations flock to Biden.
“Meanwhile, Biden’s strategy never looked more correct — Twitter isn’t real life, the young and online left isn’t representative, and Democratic voters are ultimately more pragmatic than ideological. There hasn’t been a progressive revolution for change; there has been a suburban revolution for normalcy,” he added.
Story cited here.
