I think you all have a delusionally inflated opinion of both Bernie Sanders and progressive politics as a whole.
Bernie is a self described socialist. He lost in the primaries to middling candidates in both 2016 and 2020. He in particular has dismal performance among women over 30 and black people as a whole.
The progressive movement as a whole is even worse. At least Bernie makes an attempt to win hearts and minds. Progressives are obsessed with insane purity tests and horrible messaging that alienates everyone who doesn’t already agree with them.
Look at this tweet. The whole “anyone remotely to the right of me on Israel/Palestine is morally repugnant” stuff works in echo chambers, but would get you absolutely rocked in an election.
(Woman over 30 here) I caucused for Bernie in Nevada in 2020, and he won the state my dude. He also won Iowa, New Hampshire, California, and Colorado before dropping out. Where do you think our love for Bernie is “over inflated”? He had support amongst the people.
If by “the people”, you mean “a minority of voters in the democratic primaries, which historically are a lot more amicable to progressive candidates such as Bernie than the general electorate” then sure.
Bernie dropped out because there was no realistic way for him to win the primaries. He’d get bodied in the general election.
