Joe Biden must have cried a little bit when he entered the Oval Office. After 49 years of public service and three campaigns, he was finally elected President of the United States. Although this seems like an emotional moment for a 78-year old man, the real reason he cried was for an even older dude: Bernie Sanders. 

Joe Biden has lived his whole life to this particular moment: ‘So help me God’. Yet history will not remember the 20th of January 2021 as Joe Biden’s special day. In fact, it was the day that faith presented us the (grand)father, friend, hero, some even lover, we were always looking for: The Bern. The only thing he had to do to out shadow the President of the United States on his inauguration (!) was to be himself. Our 79-year old friend from Vermont of all places had the audacity to show up in a coat a normal person would pick to walk the dog on a rainy day. He wore mittens you would insult your grandmother for if she gave them to you for Christmas and he looked into the distance as a kid who has been told that it’s bedtime. 

Joe Biden always thought he had to act like a dope 20-year old to come of good among youth. ‘Come, man, give me a break’, singing to despacito, telling Barack Obama that ‘he would not pay for the dude’s cookie’’. Yet Bernie knows that that doesn’t work. Bernie knew that you have to be the person everyone misses in their life. That grumpy granddad that is never satisfied with the situation, the partner you argue with all day yet, in the end, he wears the mittens you made him for his birthday in 1965, the father who would never compliment you on your soccer game yet would show up every time in summer and winter to see you play. The friend that gives you the cheapest bottle of Whisky for your birthday because he doesn’t understand the concept of luxury although he does understand the concept of giving. 

Joe Biden will do just fine and I believe he will bring back dignity to the United States. Nevertheless, I will remember the 20th as the day we lost the best world leader we could have had. Not a man who is the justice of right and wrong, not a man who is all about respect. Bernie is a man who stands for love, for passion. Why would you wear an expensive suit while you can also wear the jacket your wife gave you out of love (and because she thinks it makes you look cute). Why would you have to put on a fake smile when you are just sad that you lost the primaries and aren’t there on the stage. Bernie is real. An O.G. as Joe would probably say. Bernie would have given us reality as a gift and the money he possessed would go to the people in need. Bernie, please never change.