The Atlantic

The Coronavirus Debate

The big question hanging over Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders tonight: Will an unprecedented public-health crisis make voters more or less resistant to systemic change?
Source: Evan Vucci / AP

About 30 minutes into tonight’s Democratic debate, former Vice President Joe Biden made an assertion that summed up the entire marathon primary season.

“People are looking for results, not a revolution,” Biden said.

He was arguing against the Medicare for All plan that has dominated previous Democratic debates, a policy proposal that represented the central dividing line among the many candidates who once fought for the nomination. Now the race is down to just two—Biden and the author of that proposal, Senator Bernie

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