Joe Biden, for months and months and months, has been pitched as "the unity candidate." That phrase, like most of his branding, is largely empty, allowing gullible people to read whatever they want into it. Does it mean he'll unify the Democratic Party? The political divides in the country? The rich and the poor? Who knows!

But with Bernie Sanders out of the race, Biden's handlers know they need to appear to offer something to the progressive wing of the party. And today we know what part of that may be: it's crumbs off of the table.

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1248318170328379392?s=20

That this is viewed as a concession to Sanders supporters is an insult in itself. Hillary Clinton, for instance, wanted to lower the Medicare age to 55 back in 2016 and now Joe is offering 60?

I wrote a blog yesterday that stressed that, especially for swing state voters, it's still worth it to vote for Biden over Trump, because even the smallest of improvements could help people on the margins -- in this case people between 60 and 65 staring at a loss in employer insurance before Medicare kicks in. That's a pretty slim margin, and it pales in comparison to the millions of people who are, uh, under the age of 60 and uninsured. The concessions are a joke, the crumbs are an insult, and there's no guarantee that once Biden gets into office he won't just take everything off the table anyway. Everyone has to eat a shit sandwich sometimes but you never have to pretend it's a panini.

Photo: Flickr/ Mariya Borisova