Throughout the presidential primary, Bernie Sanders promoted his long-held theory of change.

“Real change never takes place from the top on down,” he wrote in his 2016 book, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In. “It always takes place from the bottom on up. It takes place when ordinary people, by the millions, are prepared to stand up and fight for justice.”

Perhaps so. But his campaign’s claim––that the movement Sanders leads, and only that movement, could propel real change––was all but refuted yesterday when Sanders lost primaries in Mississippi, Idaho, Missouri, and Michigan despite a field cleared of all contenders for the nomination save Joe Biden. (North Dakota and Washington State remain too close to call.) The results, together with Sanders’s unexpectedly weak showing last week on Super Tuesday, suggest that the democratic-socialist candidate lacks the support he’d need to secure the Democratic nomination.

Turnout surged, but Sanders still didn’t have the votes. And if he ekes out an improbable victory over Biden and beats Donald Trump? Even then, the primaries to date suggest that he would command insufficient support to pass the agenda that he himself describes as a political revolution.