Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a primary election night campaign rally Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

There’s no question that Joe Biden had a big night last night. Bigger than probably even his own campaign anticipated. Michael Bloomberg crashed and burned while Berniementum got stuck in a holding pattern after he only won a handful of states including the big prize of California.

As it became clearer and clearer that Sanders was not going to have a good Super Tuesday, the hot takes began to roll in about What It All Means™. The emerging consensus among establishment Democrats, Never Trumpers, and even some Republicans seems to be that Democrats dodged a bullet and “rejected” socialism in state after state by embracing Biden and sending Sanders a message to back off.

It certainly sounds good. Comforting, even. But that’s not the case. Not at all.

To prove the point, a number of exit polls in big states including Texas show that a sizable number of Democrats have a “favorable” view of socialism:

Democratic voters on socialism in NBC exit poll:

FAV UNFAV

CA: 54 33

NC: 48 42

TN: 47 44

TX: 57 37 — Shannon Pettypiece (@spettypi) March 3, 2020

57% of Democratic voters in preliminary exit poll results from Texas have a favorable opinion of socialism. pic.twitter.com/78JGDcxWFA — Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) March 3, 2020

Texas Democrats have an even more favorable view of socialism than California Democrats. That is crazy.

Those numbers have been growing for years, and will continue to whether Biden or Bernie get elected president or not.

A Gallup poll released last week showed that 76% of Democrats would vote for a socialist. 76%!

Democrats are NOT rejecting socialism, folks.

The embrace of socialism within the Democratic party over last decade is thanks in no small part to the relentless efforts of lifetime socialists like Sanders, and lightening rod upstarts like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who interned for Sanders before she ran for Congress and endorsed his campaign last fall. Both are self-described “Democratic socialists” with large fan bases and an enormous reach on social media and beyond.

The problem with Sanders is that he says the quiet part out loud about where the Democratic party is headed. It’s all about being “woke”, “free” college education, socialized healthcare, paying homage to Che and Fidel, and men in women’s bathrooms. But way on back when candidates started declaring themselves back in January 2019, there were polls taken that indicated Democratic voters wanted someone who they felt was electable. Warren and Sanders, they thought, had good ideas. But there was concern they couldn’t beat Trump. They wanted someone who gave off the appearance of being more moderate.

That wasn’t a rejection of socialism. That was putting a mask on it.

In choosing Biden over Bernie after the last minute push by the Democratic establishment, that’s exactly what they’ve done:

Joe will still bring us socialism just slo-mo. Look at the party's platform. Bernie was just a little more open about his mission. — Desia Ally Joseph (@DesiaAllyJoseph) March 4, 2020

Make no mistake about it: Joe Biden might come across as more electable, but he is far from a “moderate.” He’s like socialist-lite and is being pushed further to the left by the second. And you can best believe he’s gonna pick a veep nominee who falls more in line with the Sanders/AOC wing in order to bring younger voters into the fold.

When they find out what he’s got in store, they’ll jump at the chance:

Biden isn't a "moderate alternative," and his healthcare plan is Bernie's in a ski mask. Here's the architect of the public option — central to Biden's plan — mocking those who suggest it's a "Trojan horse for single payer." "It's not a trojan horse. It's right there." pic.twitter.com/6TUrWkj3AP — Retired Orrin G. Hatch (@RetiredOrrin) March 3, 2020

Don’t believe the hype about Democrats “rejecting” socialism. It’s simply not true.