Opinion: Bernie Sanders, the contest is over

At the time of this writing, on the evening of April 21, of the total votes cast for Sen. Sanders and Secretary Clinton in caucuses and primaries, Sen. Sanders has received 42.56 percent and Secretary Clinton has received 57.44 percent.

This is a landslide in Secretary Clinton’s favor by all measurements. Secretary Clinton captures the broad demographic of Democrat voters and is a lifelong member of the Democrat Party. She is entitled to the support of her party and the super delegates by virtue of her landslide victory.

Sen. Sanders must stand down for the good of the country and for the good of the causes he supports. The key to change in this country and to tackling economic inequality lies in the control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The infamous Koch brothers are focusing their attention on the House and Senate while Sen. Sanders’ campaign is becoming more like a cult of personality. He has done little to support the Democrat Party and his continuing in this campaign will offer not an iota of support to candidates trying to overturn the Republican control of the House and Senate.

Sen. Sanders cares deeply about the underprivileged and has argued loudly for them all his long political career. I applaud and respect him for that. However, the greatest advances for the poor in this country have taken place only when strong Democrat leaders with deep party roots could forge legislation that changed the face of our country. This happened under FDR and LBJ and happened under President Obama when he had the House and Senate behind him to pass the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Sanders cannot win this primary, and there will be no revolution. He must accept that. If he cares about the poor and underprivileged, he should use his new-found bully pulpit to gather support for down-ticket Democrats so that we can have true change. His one-man band revolution is going nowhere and only serves to keep right-wing Republicans in power in Washington. Senator, the contest is over. It is time to stand down.

Steve Magowan lives in South Burlington.