Now that Bernie is dropping out, I feel free to make this post.

First and foremost, I am glad he has suspended his campaign.

Unlike a great many here, I do see some potential good in a candidate continuing a Presidential campaign beyond the point where there is any realistic chance of that candidate winning. For a fairly recent example, John Edwards wasn't pressured by John Kerry to drop out in 2004, even way past the point where Edwards had a ghost of a chance of actually winning. And for all of that Edwards got rewarded with the VP pick.

An active campaign can still promote ideas, policies and programs potentially of long term value to our country. Joe Biden has been our defacto presumptive nominee for weeks now, and our party has already rallied behind him. There was no imperative for Sanders to rush in pulling the plug so early, it is only early April and our Convention is still many months away.

However a powerful new reality has eclipsed politics for virtually every American, and that is the pandemic. To use an apt but chilling metaphor, it has sucked "all the oxygen out of the room". No issue, no matter how profound, can be processed any longer through the prism of a presidential primary. No one has any attention left to spare for that. It made sense for Bernie to stay in the race through the Wisconsin primary because a contested Democratic presidential primary helps drive Democratic turnout on election day, and ALL Democrats in Wisconsin were seen as benefiting from that since the election just held was not just a primary. We wanted high Democratic turn out in order to defeat a conservative incumbent on Wisconsin's Supreme Court. Of course that materially changed when the pandemic made voting in person dangerous and when Wisconsin Republicans slammed the door on safer alternatives to voting in person yesterday.

So now, from any and all vantage points, the advantage for Sanders and all Democrats of his coordinating closely wherever possible with Joe Biden far exceeds the gains any possible advancement of his ideas through an ongoing campaign might offer him or the nation. Joe Biden has been extraordinarily gracious in his stance toward Bernie Sanders over the last few weeks, and I am proud of our presumptive nominee for all of that unifying grace and wisdom he has shown. I am also aware and thankful for the concrete gestures Joe has already made to be more inclusive in his own political platform of some of the policies and initiatives that both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders ran so purposefully on. I support Joe Biden even stronger and more enthusiastically today than I did a couple of weeks ago when I shifted my preference to him here on DU.

Joe made an extraordinary both insightful and generous comment the other day about the influence on and contribution to American politics that Bernie Sanders has helped foster in the course of his two historic runs for the Presidency. On the occasion of Bernie Sanders now suspending his second and undoubtedly last campaign, let me say that i strongly concur.

Bernie Sanders has been right on the issues all along and it is time for our political establishment to catch up with him. An employer based health care system, even at it's best with strong union representation and/or highly civic minded employers, only works for those who are employed. And only until those businesses declare bankruptcy, which they tend to do when times get rough. This pandemic has exposed which workers are essential to America, and they aren't working on Wall Street (unless they are first responders). They are Nurses and shipping clerks, truck drivers and postal workers, and almost to a person they all deserve raises. The bulk of the people picking our produce, and stocking our grocery stores shelves, work for far less than $15 an hour. And no degree of fame and fortune can protect even the most privileged of Americans from disease and death when a pandemic is on the loose. We are all in this together and ultimately are only as safe as the least safe among us, be they those in homeless shelters or prisons. When they fall ill we all get exposed. If we do not shore up the base of our society than even it's peak will ultimately tumble.

Suddenly, facing an economic collapse, our government will rush to shore up the fortunes of huge energy companies, while creating a half a trillion dollar shush fund to benefit corporations. The impractical,the unthinkable, suddenly become pressing priorities when those who have influence in America feel their fortunes threatened. But it has always been deemed imprudent to guarantee something as basic as a living wage, or universal healthcare to America's working and middle classes.

Bernie Sanders has consistently called out that hypocrisy and pointed to policies that prioritize the interests of the public over those of special interests. I am proud to have supported Bernie Sanders for President. I am eager to help elect Joe Biden as President. There is no contradiction between those statements.