Bernie Sanders is getting crushed in the Democratic primary by Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Sanders suffered 20-plus percentage point defeats in Illinois and Florida, the two biggest prizes of March 17.

The most generous interpretation of Sanders’s refusal to drop out of the Democratic race is that he’s continuing his principled mission to pull the party to the left. But, even if that’s true, it’s going to come at great, great cost to the eventual nominee, Joe Biden.

Sanders, as of two weeks ago, was all but closed out of the contest as Biden pulled ahead by more than 100 delegates. Sanders, of course, had every right to stay in the race, dragging down the party with his campaign.

Then again, Sanders’s calculation is probably the same as mine and anyone else who understands the near-insurmountable challenge of taking on an incumbent president: The Democratic nominee, whoever it is, is going to lose.

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Sanders isn’t stupid, and he knows that his message is what animates at least half, if not more, of the Democratic Party’s voters: free, state-run child care, free higher education in public schools, guaranteed government jobs, and Medicare for All (taxpayer-funded health insurance).

If his gamble, which isn’t risky, is that Trump is destined for reelection, why not do everything he can to accelerate the direction Democrats are moving, anyway?

It angers a lot of the party’s establishment, but so what? Hillary Clinton hasn’t given up her grudge. Why should Sanders?

After Tuesday's primary results, wherein Biden again swept well more delegates than Sanders, putting the former vice president in reaching distance of the required number for the nomination, Sanders still refused to step aside.

Why not? He has lost the nomination — but Democrats have probably lost the election, and there’s plenty of opportunity in failure.