Second thoughts? Americans fantasize about being able to vote for Bernie Sanders, following ‘chaos’ of first debate

After the first debate between President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden was negatively received both on the left and the right, some US voters regretted not having the primary runner-up Bernie Sanders on the stage.

The Tuesday night debate has been described by American media as a “debacle” and even “pure chaos,” due to the candidates talking over each other, name-calling, and seeming to never address the issues.

This prompted a wave of online nostalgia for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the progressive policy-focused Democratic primary candidate, who came close to winning the party’s nomination and being put up against Trump. His exit from the race was seen by many of his supporters as a result of unfair political machination after two other candidates, Senator Amy Klobuchar and former mayor Pete Buttigieg, dropped out on the same day and endorsed Biden just before the major ‘Super Tuesday’ elections day.

Following the hectic Trump/Biden debate this week, Sanders was nationally trending on Twitter. Commenters were saying the democratic socialist Senator “should have been up there,” but voters were now “stuck with bumbling Joe.”

Some commenters were saying that Sanders “won” that debate, despite not even participating.

More skeptical commenters, like ABC news reporter Matt Bevan, were “struggling to see” how Sanders could have done better than Biden, against Trump’s highly aggressive debate tactics.

Conservative host Saagar Enjeti even argued that Sanders was “the real loser” of the night, being “disavowed and attacked by both candidates on the stage.”

Republican Trump and Sander’s supposed ally Democrat Biden did push back against the ideas of the US progressive movement, such as universal healthcare, a green energy program and cutting police funding.

Most notably, during the night, Biden boasted of “beating” the left-winger Sanders in the primary “by a whole hell of a lot.” To Trump’s claim that the Democratic Party is being run by far-left agents, the former vice president replied by saying “My party is me. I am the Democratic Party right now,” referring to his self-descriptor of a ‘moderate.'