The Democratic stalemate

Reports of a runaway Bernie Sanders victory proved premature

Democratic candidates.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, nicholashan/iStock, Aerial3/iStock)

In the days since Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders decisively won the Nevada caucuses, the political commentariat has been treating him not merely as the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination but as the presumptive nominee — with the socialist's supporters ecstatic and just about everyone else in a full-on panic. But Tuesday night's Charleston, South Carolina debate showed that this consensus formed prematurely. Sanders might be the frontrunner, but he's got a long way to go before he locks down the nomination.

Which means that the just-slightly-less-panicked narrative that prevailed in the week leading up to the Nevada vote was the one rooted more firmly in the political reality of the present. The Democratic field remains deeply, chaotically divided. Sanders may be in the lead, but this is to a large extent a function of the inability of any other single candidate to consolidate support from those voters who aren't sold on making a left-wing non-Democrat into the party's standard-bearer and choice to take on, and hopefully take down, Donald Trump.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.