Democratic Primaries

“Have we been as successful as I would hope in bringing young people in? And the answer is no,” Sanders said. “We’re making some progress. But historically everybody knows that younger people do not vote in the kind of numbers that older people vote in. I think that will change in the general election.”

So he has alienated moderates in his own party (including African Americans, whose massive support for former vice president Joe Biden he ignores, preferring to attribute Biden’s success to “corporate Democrats”), and has an even worse shot attracting — and is off-putting to — the sort of suburban women who helped deliver the House majority to Democrats in 2018. But don’t worry, young people will make up for all that! Democrats are supposed to take on faith that the people Sanders needs to make up for those he has given up on and those who have not yet appeared will save the party in November.

Democrats need not accept this preposterous bet, and on Super Tuesday did not. It surely makes more sense to bet on the voters who actually did show up in droves just as they did in 2018. (Consider what happened in Texas: “With unwavering support from black voters in the cities and a surge in the suburbs, Mr. Biden notched his most significant win of the primary calendar here … netting him a large and unexpected share of Texas’s 228 pledged delegates.”

The Sanders strategy — if you vote for me, they will come — is so ludicrous that Sanders is not trying to smooth over the rough edges he has spent a lifetime.