The feverish anti-establishment antipathy that’s helped fuel Bernie Sanders’ presidential ambitions over the past few years has relied on a belief that the system (what system? every system) has been rigged against him.

From Wall Street to drug companies, from the Democratic Party to corporate America, these powerful institutions were aligning to rob him of what was rightfully his, what “the people” wanted.

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Sanders himself rang the alarms this week about the coming coup: “Look, it’s no secret,” he told reporters. “The Washington Post has 16 articles a day on this — there’s a massive effort to stop Bernie Sanders...The corporate establishment is coming together, the political establishment is coming together, and they will do anything and everything.” That, presumably, gets his supporters riled up and ready for battle, and there’s likely some truth to the idea that mainstream Democrats are concerned Sanders’ socialism will get Trump re-elected. (They’re not wrong.)

But what happened on Super Tuesday totally dismantled the Sanders conspiracy theory that, if only “the establishment” would get out of voters’ way, this would be his for the taking.

Joe Biden surprised even the establishment political class with his nine-or-more-state win on Tuesday night, after months of defending the health of his candidacy.