Trump was permitted to, as he was not perceived as a threat to capital in the way that Bernie was. It was also more an observation of the backroom politicking that seemed to play out towards the end.
Trump was eventually adopted by the Republican establishment, but initially every other candidate (and some of the conservative media ecosystem) was trying to take him down. If Trump can overcome that initial resistance, so can a leftist candidate (Bernie showed this in the first four primary states). Leftist candidates have also shown the ability to fundraise from ordinary people (so they don't need to take corporate money to be competitive), and the more demonized the Republican Party becomes among Democrats, the harder it will be for the media or the Democratic establishment to undermine an eventual leftist nominee.
As for the backroom politics of this past primary, think of how many things needed to fall into place for the establishment to pull that off.
They needed a popular former president to step in and coordinate the other candidates. Will some of the shine wear off Obama going forward? Will Obama -- who has pointedly avoided politics since leaving office -- step in on behalf of someone who he didn't work with for nearly a decade?
They needed a split field where consolidation could overwhelm the leftist candidate. What if the 2024 primary is 1v1 like 2016, only the leftist candidate runs a serious campaign from the start? If centrists go all-in on one candidate and that candidate turns out to be unimpressive...
They needed a centrist candidate with an independent, reliable base of support. They didn't consolidate around Biden until after South Carolina because until that point no centrist candidate had shown any real attractiveness to any key part of the Democratic base.
They needed to get lucky on the timing of major scandals. What if the Tara Reade story had dropped the week before South Carolina? Or in December? Biden might have been badgered out of the race before consolidation.
They benefited from the timing of Covid. Remember when schools and businesses started to shut down, and Bernie's fundraising messages went from "donate to the campaign" to "donate to coronavirus relief?" Remember when the Biden campaign told people to vote in a primary in the middle of a pandemic, while Bernie told people to be safe? Remember when states didn't want to push back their primaries because doing so would obviously hurt the candidate running against Medicare for All?
Finally, they needed the leftist candidate not to be too strong. Bernie was a nice old white man from a small state who had very little national recognition prior to 2015. He was popular, but not overwhelmingly so. A stronger, more popular candidate would be harder to ratfuck.
All of those pieces aren't going to fall into place every time.
If Biden wins, it will have been achieved while moving right, if he loses, leftists will be faulted.
I think we may be able to challenge that. While he's certainly to the right of Bernie, and the left is ultra-sensitive to anything he does that leans right, he's also running as "the most progressive candidate in history." His website contains a number of progressive-sounding policies. Of course he has no intention of doing any of that, but in the event of a Biden win we should push that stuff as the reason why. Similarly, in the event he wins and then congressional Democrats get clobbered in the midterms, we should push his failure to enact any of his progressive promises as the reason why.
Trump was eventually adopted by the Republican establishment, but initially every other candidate (and some of the conservative media ecosystem) was trying to take him down. If Trump can overcome that initial resistance, so can a leftist candidate (Bernie showed this in the first four primary states). Leftist candidates have also shown the ability to fundraise from ordinary people (so they don't need to take corporate money to be competitive), and the more demonized the Republican Party becomes among Democrats, the harder it will be for the media or the Democratic establishment to undermine an eventual leftist nominee.
As for the backroom politics of this past primary, think of how many things needed to fall into place for the establishment to pull that off.
All of those pieces aren't going to fall into place every time.
I think we may be able to challenge that. While he's certainly to the right of Bernie, and the left is ultra-sensitive to anything he does that leans right, he's also running as "the most progressive candidate in history." His website contains a number of progressive-sounding policies. Of course he has no intention of doing any of that, but in the event of a Biden win we should push that stuff as the reason why. Similarly, in the event he wins and then congressional Democrats get clobbered in the midterms, we should push his failure to enact any of his progressive promises as the reason why.