When liberals lose elections, they blame the voters. The candidate was too smart, too good to be appreciated by the ignorant rubes in the electorate. Voters don’t know what’s good for them (and they deserve what’s coming).

Leftists don’t have that luxury. We are committed to the idea that people are basically rational, that they do the best they can looking out for themselves and those they care about, despite living in an economic and political system that makes it extraordinarily difficult to do so. When we fail, we know it’s not because people are stupid.

That makes results like last night’s hit even harder to take. For a moment after Nevada, it looked like Sanders was unstoppable, except through backroom chicanery. He had won the first three contests (a feat never accomplished before), and the opposition looked hopelessly divided and inept. The establishment consolidated when it had to, however, and his campaign was routed in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday.