Bernie's loss, and two theories of capitalism

The two dominant explanations tell us a lot about how people think about power.

It has been about a year since Joe Biden won South Carolina in the 2020 primaries, marking the beginning of the end of the Sanders campaign. Since then, two competing explanations for his loss have come to dominate the discourse:

1. The machine beat him. Capitalism creates an endless gauntlet of systematic and deliberate obstacles to socialism and the Sande…