Bernie Sanders helped conclude the first day of the 2020 Democratic National Convention by pleading with progressives to jump behind Joe Biden’s campaign, claiming “the future of our democracy is at stake” in the November election.
“My friends, I say to you, and to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake,” Sanders said in a prerecorded speech filmed in his Burlington, Vermont, home.
Sanders’s remarks highlighted his role as a uniter who, despite this year’s Democratic primary proving significantly less competitive than that of 2016, has been tasked with shoring up the Democratic Party’s progressive base. For months, Biden’s campaign has been concerned that younger voters, who overwhelmingly supported Sanders in the primary, won’t show up to the polls for Biden.
“We must come together, defeat Donald Trump, and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president,” Sanders said. “My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”
Despite the stark differences between how Sanders and the former vice president ran their respective primary campaigns, particularly on issues of healthcare and support for a “Green New Deal,” Sanders’s remarks generally stayed clear of policy and instead on the most immediate task at hand: defeating Trump in November.
Sanders was allotted eight minutes of speaking time, more than nearly every other attendee at this year’s largely virtual Democratic convention. Without a live audience, his speech came without any protesting from his supporters. In 2016, a number of them booed nominee Hillary Clinton and claimed the primary process was rigged.
Instead, most frustrations from progressives were vented on social media and in conference calls held by Democratic Party officials. Pro-Sanders delegates griped that they could not vote for the Democratic Party platform because it omitted a pledge to pass “Medicare for all” and other left-wing wish-list items.
Sanders dropped out of the race in early April after pulling off three consecutive first-place finishes in early primary contests. His campaign effectively ended after Biden won a definitive double-digit victory in South Carolina and most of his former primary competitors backed Biden.
“It was not long ago that people considered these ideas radical and fringe. Today, these are mainstream ideas, and many of them are being implemented in cities and states across the country,” Sanders said in April. “Together, we have transformed American consciousness as to what kind of nation we have become and taken this country a major step forward in the never-ending struggle for economic justice, social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice.”
