This is hardly the moment for progressives to despair

Strictly speaking, the Democratic race isn’t over. But even if he fights to the convention, it’s hard to see how Bernie Sanders could win a majority. All signs point to a decisive victory for Joe Biden.

What comes next? A world where Biden wins the nomination and then the presidency — which is well in the realm of possibility — feels like one where the Democratic establishment has successfully marginalized the progressive left, where supporters of Sanders have no future in electoral politics. Some of those supporters might even drop off the map in apathy and despair.

There is another possibility, though. It’s not as viscerally thrilling as an outright win — few things are. But if the goal is to move America to the left — to craft and pass policies that help ordinary people — then a Biden candidacy isn’t the end of the game. He represents an opportunity. You can see what this might look like in Virginia, where the Democratic majority in the General Assembly just finished its legislative session.

In 2017, Virginia Democrats faced a difficult choice about the future of the party.

Would they nominate a forceful, dynamic left-wing politician who stood against “establishment” politics and called for structural political change? Or would they fall behind a party stalwart with conservative instincts and an unremarkable record in office?

The progressive candidate, Tom Perriello, ran a vigorous campaign for the nomination. But the stalwart, Ralph Northam, won the race, cruising to victory with heavy support from African Americans and moderate suburbanites. And despite fumbles and flops throughout the fall campaign against Ed Gillespie — a pro-business Bush Republican masquerading as a Trumpist demagogue — Northam won the governor’s mansion in a sweep of the state’s most populous regions.

As governor, Northam has been unexpectedly controversial. And true to form, he hasn’t challenged the overall status quo of Virginia politics, where powerful business interests hold huge sway over lawmakers in Richmond. But the anti-Trump wave that put Northam into office also energized progressives and put Democrats in the driver’s seat of Virginia politics.

Progressives may have wanted someone else for governor, but for the first time, they’ve been able to stake a claim on power in the state.

There’s every chance for the progressive left to make this happen on a national scale. If Biden goes on to win the White House, there’s real space for the pro-Sanders left to work its will on policy. It can use its influence to steer Biden toward its preferred outcomes. It can fulfill some of its goals under the cover of Biden’s moderation, from raising the minimum wage nationally to pushing the American health care system closer to single-payer.

This may sound a lot like wishful thinking. And if Biden were strongly ideological, I might also doubt his malleability. But Biden, like Northam, doesn’t buck the mainstream.

If the two Sanders campaigns have, over five years, pulled the center of the Democratic Party as far left as it’s been since before Ronald Reagan, then Biden is likely to hew to that center.

After his win in Michigan, Biden promised to work with Sanders to “defeat Donald Trump.” Biden knows he needs the Sanders left. He’s going to extend a hand. Progressives should take it — and keep planning for when they can make moderates compromise with them.