Joe Biden wasn’t my first choice, but it’s still a little weird to hear people on the left smugly, almost happily, predicting, before the fight is engaged, that Joe Biden, if he is the nominee, will either lose, if nominated, or will sit on his hands and do nothing, if elected. I’m glad that Democratic primary voters don’t pay any attention to this sort of nonsense.

If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Trump lies and fiddles in his own way as a virus spreads and wreaks its havoc on people’s health, lives, and much else here and across the world. His complete unfitness for office is endangering people’s lives. And like any crisis it strikes unevenly. By now, any rational president would have declared a national emergency and thrown the resources of the federal government into action.

Larry Summers makes clear that much more than lowering already low interests rates is imperative now. But here’s the problem: Trump and his crony Republicans in Congress are doing nothing in the face of a national emergency. If anything, they are obstructing a robust response.

Barring something unforeseen, if Bernie is unable to win the Michigan primary tomorrow, his path to the nomination is, for all effective purposes, over. The primary map for the rest of March and beyond isn’t Bernie friendly. That reality should compel some rethinking on Bernie’s part as to his next move. I don’t think a reprise of 2016 makes any sense. In politics there is a place for political realism.

The application of a popular front strategy isn’t reducible to simply a commitment to beat Trump. That’s a good start, but not enough. It also entails a readiness to build an extensive set of political and social alliances that while not precluding struggle within the front/coalition, accents broad people’s unity against Trump in the first place. And certainly not a war against the “Democratic Party establishment” (reminds me of the “sixties”).

I can hear a Bernie supporter saying, “But they attack us.” I have no doubt about that, but the left, again because of the existential stakes of this election, should act like the grown up in the room. So far neither Bernie nor many of his supporters have conducted themselves in that manner. It’s not to late. Much hangs on it, including the success of Bernie’s campaign for the Democratic Party nomination.