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Sanders Urges Progressives to Keep Agenda Alive with Vote for Biden

Katherine Gypson

   WASHINGTON - For the second time in four years, progressive voters'
   hopes to elevate Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to the top of the
   Democratic ticket were dashed this spring, when Sanders' call for a
   social revolution and Medicare for All fell flat, and former Vice
   President Joe Biden surged to victory in the race for the presidential
   nomination.

   In 2016, many of these same liberal Democrats decided to sit out the
   general election after Hillary Clinton edged out Sanders for the
   Democratic presidential nomination -- and Sanders appeared half-hearted
   in urging them to back Clinton at the polls.

   But Sanders made a compelling argument Monday night -- at the start of
   the 2020 Democratic National Convention -- that progressives' issues
   and policies will live on if they help the more moderate Biden defeat
   President Donald Trump in the November3 general election.

   "The future of our democracy is at stake," Sanders said in a live
   speech from his home in Burlington, Vermont. He added, "Many of the
   ideas we fought for, that just a few years ago were considered radical,
   are now mainstream."

   The appeal for party unity was a departure for the self-styled
   democratic socialist who was the last remaining primary rival to Biden
   earlier this year. Sanders has not always advocated loyalty to the
   Democratic party, with whom he usually caucuses in the U.S. Senate.

   Progressive wing

   He is seen foremost as the leader of the progressive wing of the
   Democratic Party, the group of liberal voters who support social reform
   policies intended to help working Americans, including universal health
   care, free college tuition, a higher minimum wage and a raft of other
   social benefits.

   Sanders rested his appeal to his supporters on the idea that defeating
   Trump is key to keeping progressive causes in the mainstream
   discussion.

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