Jason Sattler

Opinion columnist

Bernie Sanders never joined the Democratic party, but the Democratic Party has joined Bernie Sanders.

The senator from Vermont will be remembered for many things. He’s the first Jewish-American to be the front-runner for a major party nomination. He’s built a movement that has already helped nudge workers’ needs to the center of the Democratic Party, helping to bring a $15 minimum wage to tens of millions. And if America ever lives up to our full potential and expands Medicare to all citizens as a right, Bernie Sanders will deserve a substantial share of the credit for selling a vision championed in the past by Harry Truman, John Dingell and John Conyers to the Americans of the 21st century.

But to get to the place where no American ever wants for health coverage, we have to save democracy and end the far right’s rapid remaking of the federal judiciary.

And to do that, we must defeat President Donald Trump.

Sanders comes through in the crunch

Thousands of Americans are dying preventable deaths every day due to the awesome reach of a virus that this administration first learned about last November.

Republicans, and their cronies on the Supreme Court, have proven that they are willing to risk peoples' lives by forcing them to wait in line and vote in person at the height of a pandemic. And instead of uniting the nation, this president is fixated on getting high ratings for his nightly distractions from the failures that still mark the federal response to COVID-19.

So what Bernie Sanders may be remembered most for is doing the right thing and getting behind the only person who can defeat Trump — the Democratic nominee for president — when it mattered most.

Sanders said he'd continue to seek delegates and influence on the party, but he also said flatly that "Vice President Biden will be the nominee." After the convention, he said, "standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history."

Uniting those who oppose Trump is essential, given this president’s knack for division, his massive financial backing and the likelihood this election will take place when it is still dangerous for Americans to gather in public.

Sanders was a fierce competitor in both of his runs for president, though never as fierce as many of his biggest supporters. He generally refrained from ad hominem attacks on both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. And while his grudge against Clinton and hers against him remain obvious, he clearly has affection for Biden and resisted the call of some advisers to torch the former vice president.

When it became clear to me that Sen. Elizabeth Warren would not be the Democratic nominee, I backed Sanders without hesitation. And one of my biggest regrets of this year, besides not buying stock in Charmin' and every hand sanitizer company on Earth, was not writing a column after Sanders' convincing win in the Nevada caucuses to argue that it was time for him to start acting like the front-runner.

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To me, that would have been an excellent moment for him to join the Democratic Party and embrace the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson and the other pioneers before him. Instead, Bernie remained Bernie, independent and authentic —possibly to a fault.

On the Sunday after that win, he was on "60 Minutes" defending previous comments about Fidel Castro — and igniting a backlash that Trump has never experienced for his slavish tributes to living autocrats like Kim Jong Un or Mohammed bin Salman.

Democrats achieve what GOP didn't need to defeat Trump

I would have loved to have seen an actual populist run against Trump. I would have loved to see the fraud of Trump’s blather exposed by the force of a genuine movement, eager to finish the job of completing our social safety net and ending the disgrace of America, he richest country in the world, lacking basic benefits most of the rich world takes granted — like paid leave, a decent minimum wage and guaranteed health care.

Now Biden takes the mantle of the party with a platform that’s more progressive than the one backed by the president he served with, thanks in large part to Sanders. While a platform is a good start, Biden will have to take concrete steps on personnel and policy to affirm that these policies are not just lip service.

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But at this point we have to be pleased that the Democratic Party seems to be managing something the GOP never achieved — uniting against Trump.

This means Democrats may again win the chance to clean up the massive mess left by a failed Republican president as that president’s party does its best to prevent that mess from being cleaned up. That’s the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is that just as Trump's failures responding to Hurricane Maria portended his failures to respond to COVID-19, he’ll get four more years to prove he’s capable of even worse.

For now, Democrats should pause to note an important moment that seemed like it might never come. They’ve ended the 2020 primary and, hopefully and finally, the 2016 primary as well.

And that makes the victory this democracy needs to survive far more likely.

Jason Sattler, a writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors and host of "The GOTMFV Show" podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @LOLGOP