Today’s word of the day, courtesy of Merriam-Webster, is connive. Connive is a verb that means “to secretly help someone do something dishonest or illegal” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day). Dictionary.com gives these definitions: “[1] to cooperate secretly, conspire (often followed by with); [2] to avoid noticing something that one is expected to oppose or condemn; give aid to wrongdoing by forbearing to act or speak (usually followed by at); [3] to be indulgent toward something others oppose or criticize (usually followed by at)” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/connive).

Merriam-Webster explains, “Connive may not seem like a term that would raise many hackles, but it certainly raised those of Wilson Follett [1887-1963, originator of Follett’s Modern American Usage], a usage critic who lamented that the word ‘was undone during the Second World War, when restless spirits felt the need of a new synonym for plotting, bribing, spying, conspiring, engineering a coup, preparing a secret attack.’ Follett thought connive should only mean ‘to wink at’ or ‘to pretend ignorance.’ Those senses are closer to the Latin ancestor of the word: connive comes from the Latin verb connivēre, which means ‘to close the eyes’ and which is descended from –nivēre, a form akin to the Latin verb nictare, meaning ‘to wink.’ But many English speakers disagreed, and the ‘conspire’ sense is now the word’s most widely used meaning” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day).

Etymonline.com agrees somewhat, but not completely. The website says that the word entered the language “c. 1600, ‘shut one’s eyes to something one does not like but cannot help,’ from Latin connivere, also conivere ‘to wink,’ hence, figuratively, ‘to wink at (a crime), be secretly privy,’ from assimilated form of com ‘with, together’ (see con-) + base akin to nictare ‘to wink’ (from PIE root *kneigwh-; see nictitate). From 1630s as ‘conceal knowledge (of a fault or crime of another); give silent encouragement to a culpable person.’ From 1797 as ‘be in secret complicity” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=connive). So the modern meaning of “conspiring with” has been around since the end of the 18^th century, long before WWII.

On this date four years ago, Joe Biden won  in the Super Tuesday primary to get the momentum to win the Democratic nomination for President over Bernie Sanders.

In the earlier primaries, Senator Bernie Sanders had the advantage. While Sanders won the popular vote in the Iowa caucuses, Pete Buttigieg somehow won the most delegates. In New Hampshire, Sanders beat Buttigieg in a close contest, and then Sanders won the Nevada caucuses easily.

After that, with Sanders as the clear frontrunner, Joe Biden won a big victory in South Carolina, big enough that for the 2024 primaries, the Democratic National Committee decided that South Carolina would be the first-in-the-nation primary for the Democrats, depriving New Hampshire of its traditional role. (New Hampshire still held the early primary, but the DNC decided that those delegates would not count).

Leading up to the primaries, there had been as many as 29 candidates for the Democratic nomination, though 18 of them had dropped out before the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses. Biden had led in the polls for much of the time leading up to the primaries, except for a brief time when Elizabeth Warren held a lead.

But the big concern of the Democrats was that Bernie Sanders would win the nomination. Personally, I found that concern somewhat curious. Sanders was and is an avowed independent. In his early days, he was a member of the Liberty Union Party, an ironically named party that served as an umbrella for a variety of socialist groups. Since being a member of the House and then the Senate, Sanders has caucused with the Democrats, and the Democrats have given him leadership positions whenever they have had control of the Senate, but he has never been a Democrat, and so it seems odd that the Democrats would let him represent him in the presidential election. On the other hand, Sanders received the second largest number of votes in the 2016 Democrat primaries, as he would in the 2020 primaries. The Democrat Party’s concern was that Sanders was too progressive (socialist) to win the general election.

Just before Super Tuesday, during which 15 states held primaries, several of the remaining candidates (Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, and Pete Buttigieg) dropped out of the running, and all three endorsed Biden. The day after Super Tuesday, Michael Bloomberg also dropped out and endorsed Biden.

On March 3, 2020, Joe Biden won 10 of the 15 primaries held, and Sanders won the other five, including the largest state, California. At that time, Sanders had won 7 primaries, Biden 11, and Buttigied 1, and yet the candidates who dropped out called Biden the presumptive nominee, which he did indeed become in April when Sanders dropped out, the last Democrat candidate to do so.

Quite a few supporters of Bernie Sanders believe that the Democrat National Committee conspired to deprive him of the nomination in both 2016 and 2020. I don’t know what the truth is. Perhaps they did, or perhaps a handful of DNC operatives did and the rest connived. The same could be said of the 2020 election, though the population who believe that is different than the one that believes Sanders was cheated. It is very sad that so many people in our country are worried about the political parties conniving to steal elections. We should all pray that it isn’t so.

Today’s picture is of Bernie Sanders after he won the New Hampshire primary, February 11, 2020. It’s from an NPR report (https://www.npr.org/2020/02/11/805033393/sanders-is-projected-to-narrowly-win-the-n-h-primary-taking-the-front-runner-man).