Looking at the results of the Super Tuesday races in the Democratic, allow me to cut to the chase and say that if Joe Biden is the nominee, he will most certainly lose. While I do not know this for a fact, this script has been written before. Donald Trump will serve up Biden for brunch like a plate of shrimp and grits from the South Carolina Low country. South Carolina resuscitated Biden’s flailing, lackluster and milquetoast campaign built on a pledge to keep things just as they are, and not make any sudden moves.

What we are witnessing—and nobody said this would be easy—is a fight for the future of the Democratic Party. In an era of Trumpian fascism, there is a struggle between the neoliberal establishment Dems—of which Biden is the standard bearer-- and the progressives—of which Sanders is the leader. The corporate lobbyists who own the party—the oil industry, Big Pharma, Wall Street and the insurance companies—decided they had to act and stop Bernie. The Democrats are faced with choices— save the people from capitalism, save capitalism from itself, or save capitalists and neoliberals from social democracy and an economic transformation in America. Establishment Dems have selected the third option, so as to keep their checks coming in.

And I am convinced they would rather have another four years of Trump, and possibly the end of democracy, than to have a successful progressive president, presumably in the person of Bernie Sanders. Their warnings of the need to stop Trump notwithstanding, the establishment trembles far more over a democratic socialist president who will tax them heavily than a fascist president who is kidnapping brown babies—not their children—hauling them into concentration camps, locking them in cages and wrapping them in aluminum foil.

This is a contest between the past and the future. Biden represents the white moderates who told Dr. King to slow it down and stay away from all that direct action, movement building and social change stuff. Biden would return us to normalcy, which means the usual assortment of normalized racial discrimination and economic inequality, but without the stormtroopers, pogroms and outright lynching. On the other hand, Sanders represents the challenge to the status quo, an effort to seek a potentially radical redistribution of wealth and a reordering of society. Sanders attracts Latinos--an emerging key demographic--and young people--the future of the country, those who are experiencing the effects of the college debt bubble, and who will suffer the impact of climate change.

If the Democratic Party brass salvaged Biden, Black voters almost certainly did as well. This was not in any a reflection of love for Biden, but perhaps a love for Obama. Obama reminds us of a better time and place, for all of the hurt the Black community experienced during those years, with historic losses of wealth from the Great Recession, and no bailout like the banks or the auto industry. In addition, Black voters are attempting to save their lives, which are under direct threat under Trump. Apparently, they cannot place their hopes in white America to do the right thing and go for the progressive candidate.

Super Tuesday also provided some other lessons. For example, the failure of Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer demonstrated that money is a corrupting influence in politics, but billionaires are unable to buy a presidency in the absence of retail politics, campaigning and shaking hands with the people. Citizens United still must be overturned, and the legalized corruption of unlimited money in campaigns must give way to public financing of elections. Moreover, the failure of Elizabeth Warren to make her case is confounding, and can be chalked up to sexism and missteps on the part of her campaign.

As they have said in the movement, don’t mourn, organize. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party still has a chance to win this thing, but it will require strategic thinking and action. The Sanders campaign must take a hard look at why they are not engaging older Black voters, including older Black women, and must boost turnout from millennials. Further, it is insufficient to preach to the choir, as Bernie must reach beyond the usual suspects and spread his message of democratic socialism and social democracy, but in language that resonates with people.

A final note: Biden said the following about young people, those whose votes he would need to win: "The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break." - Joe Biden. It ain't over, and Sanders and the progressives can turn things around, but I'm dying to see how Dems would plan to energize young people and convince them to board the Malarkey Express.