“Everyone in the field agreed that the government role in health care should be more expansive, that education spending should go up, that there should be more income support for the poor, that the welfare state should be extended into matters related to child care and family leave, and that the country needs to be more aggressive about environmental regulation, gun regulation, anti-racism, and LGBTQ rights while taking a less harsh approach to criminals and immigrants. The entire argument in modern Democratic Party politics, in other words, is simply over how far left to go on a range of issues, not about which direction to take the country or the party. Sanders can take a bow.”
Matthew Yglesias, Vox

Many note that “Sanders’ campaign was, truly, funded by regular people: As one oft-cited analysis found, the professions found most disproportionately often among his donors included ‘bartender,’ ‘vet assistant,’ ‘butcher,’ and ‘fast food worker’… Even as Biden passed him in 2020, he continued to be the preferred candidate of lower-income voters. But it wasn’t enough, and it’s not a coincidence that the candidate who defeated him told donors at New York City’s Carlyle Hotel last June that ‘nothing would fundamentally change’ about their positions in society if he were elected…

“Over and over, voters heard from business leaders—even the ones who typically support Democrats—that Sanders’ plans would, e.g., ‘bankrupt the health-care system’ and ‘be a disaster for our country’ and that they would rather vote for Trump than the senator from Vermont… The result was Sanders losing repeatedly in primaries in which a crucial subset of voters who liked his proposals chose Biden because of his presumably superior electability… In four or more years, Sanders’ successors—the AOCs and Marie Newmans and, depending on how things go, perhaps the Elizabeth Warrens again—might ride the significant momentum he has created to do things differently. But for now, money still talks.”
Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate

Others write, “What we hope Sanders doesn’t take from his failed candidacy — or communicate to his fervent followers — is a conviction that the process was rigged against him and that a conspiracy of party leaders and the ‘billionaire class’ stymied his campaign. The truth is that, as an independent senator who viewed the Democratic Party as an instrument for his ambitions rather than a political home, Sanders faced resistance not just from benighted bigwigs but from ordinary Democratic voters, including older African Americans…

“This page has expressed concerns about [Biden’s] sharpness, his gaffes and his ability to stand up to Trump forcefully during a general election campaign, and we fear that his presence in the race cast too great a shadow over a new and less familiar generation of candidates with compelling ideas. But we also believe that it’s vital that voters bring to an end the incompetent and corrupt administration of Donald Trump. It is imperative that Sanders do a better job in 2020 leading his supporters to back Biden in November than he did in getting out the vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016… For his part, Biden must show Sanders’ supporters that he shares their goals for a more just, humane and equitable society, even if he differs on how to achieve them.”
Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times

“With so much on the line in the November election, tired epithets like ‘neoliberal’ and ‘corporate Democrat’ should not blind anyone to the chasm of competence and compassion between Biden and Donald Trump. With his acknowledgment of political arithmetic, Sanders guarantees that Biden will have seven months to unify the Democratic Party and work to defeat Trump. And to his credit, Sanders leaves the race without ever having mounted a personal attack on Biden that Republicans could use against the former vice president this fall.”
Walter Shapiro, New Republic