Bernie Sanders lost his last chance to take Joe Biden down Nathan Robinson
over 5 years in The guardian
On the whole, Sanders delivered the kind of performance that he needed to at this stage, with Biden now the favorite to win the nomination
A stark contrast was on display Sunday night, and both candidates on the Democratic debate stage knew it. Though Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders were united in their criticism of Donald Trump’s response to coronavirus, they clashed repeatedly on policy issues, and even their core messages on the virus were very different.
For Biden, coronavirus is an isolated “national emergency” that needs to be dealt with before moving on to issues like poverty, minimum wages, and the reform of the health insurance system. For Sanders, these issues are inextricably tied to the coronavirus emergency, because they exacerbate the suffering that comes during an epidemic. Sanders believes the spread of the virus is exposing deep systemic problems in the United States: the homelessness crisis, the need for single payer free-at-point-of-use healthcare, the precariousness of employment and the lack of paid sick leave. Continue reading...