‘SNL’ cold open offers up more ‘exciting’ Democratic candidates ahead of ‘big yikes’ midterms The full cold open for Tuesday’s ‘Tonight’ sketch is available here. This version is edited for clarity.
“This election is going to be a disaster for Democrats, we’re all going to be in trouble.”
This is how Bernie Sanders’ Bernie Sanders Sanders, not to be confused with Bernie Sanders’ Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate for 2016, sums up the likely consequences for Democrats — particularly the Democratic party — if the results of this fall’s midterm elections aren’t reversed.
The line in particular — “this election is going to be a disaster for Democrats” — has become an increasingly prominent line in this and other races throughout the country since the Democrats’ disastrous loss to the GOP in the presidential election last November.
But this is more than just a line. It’s very much a sentiment. It’s a feeling in the Democratic Party that is as much a consequence of the campaign rhetoric of the Sanders-endorsed campaigns as the losses that have taken place in recent years.
And the feeling is that it’s a feeling shared by people who, as Bernie Sanders says in his closing remarks to “Tonight’s” show-stopper, “feel the Bern” for the first time after a string of defeats so far this year.
“If we don’t do something about it, we are going to end up like the Republicans,” Sanders says. The line comes after the final credits roll, after the ‘Tonight Show’ sketch rolls, after the monologue and after the musical number that closes out the show and, more importantly, the political ‘SNL’ cold open that opens the show.
“In the last year, we’ve suffered four consecutive election losses for Democrats,” Sanders tells the TV audience, concluding the brief, one-shot sketch in which he introduces his “socialism of the 21st century” to be played by his self-titled character.
“My name is Bernie Sanders, and this election is going to be a disaster for Democrats