So, Elizabeth Warren endorsed Hillary Clinton tonight. Is that all she did?

Rachel Maddow begins the segment with her explanation why Elizabeth Warren didn’t choose to endorse either candidate during the primary. This wasn’t a question put to Warren, but rather Maddow’s own statement, after which she begins the interview asking Warren to make her endorsement.

“I am ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next president of the United States and make sure Donald Trump never gets anywhere close to the White House.”

Maddow then asks Warren why she didn’t endorse during the primary, as most male and female senators and members of Congress did.

E. Warren:

“I felt that the primary was really important and it was an opportunity for Democrats to get out there and show this is what it means to be a Democrat. We got out there and pushed those issues forward…”

There was nothing in her answer that indicates in any way that what Maddow said at the start of the segment is a part of her thinking.

E. Warren:

‘I also think that what Bernie Sanders did was powerfully important and he ran a campaign from the heart. And he ran a campaign where he took these issues and he really thrust them into the spotlight. These are issues near and dear to my heart. He brought millions of people into the process. He brought millions of people into the Democratic party and, for me, this is what this is all about. I take my cue, on every part of this, from Bernie and what he said right at the beginning: “this campaign, what this is about, what we’re doing here, millions of people across this country, millions of people who work hard every day in this land, it is not about one candidate. It’s not even about one election. Coming together to help the fight to level the playing field, so that everybody gets a fighting chance.’

Looking at my social media timelines, it was difficult not to see the huge numbers of people who immediately jumped on the “Warren sold out” bandwagon. So, let’s break up this interview into four distinct pieces.

1. Warren’s endorsement for the general election:

Warren was introduced as coming to the Maddow show to endorse and immediately asked to state her endorsement. She did. Full stop.

2. Why Warren withheld her endorsement in the primary:

Warren stated she didn’t endorse until now because the purpose of the primary is to showcase what the party and the issues are all about as opposed to the Republicans and their issues and people are about.

3. The candidacy of Bernie Sanders and his platform:

Warren made absolutely no bones as to where she stands on the issues and which, between Clinton and Sanders, best represents them. Here, the operative words from Warren’s answer are “I take my cue from Bernie.”

4. Democrats versus Donald Trump:

When the topic is defeating Donald Trump, his defeat and the preservation of Democratic gains and ideals are job number one for Elizabeth Warren.

For many a voter, this primary cycle has been as revelatory as it has been disillusioning. But one has to be very careful in placing blame for the disappointments in this primary cycle.

First and foremost, were we to personify of all the disappointments we’ve been served up in the past year, the media’s figure would be that of a towering giant. There is no question, whether we are analyzing cable news or print media, the disappointment has been equally great. From the disappearance of all of MSNBC’s progressive voices, to the Foxification of CNN, to the premature endorsement of the New York Times and Washington Post and their subsequent highly selective and biased reporting on the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, to the unanimous anti-Sanders stance of all of its opinion writers, the corporate mainstream media has presented a united front in fighting the public opinion on an insurgent candidacy by omission and, when no longer possible, deliberate misstatement. Not even bastions of progressiveness escaped the anti-Sanders hurricane that this past year’s worth of news and analysis has blown over us. Both Mother Jones and The Nation had dedicated writers who regularly wrote anti-Sanders pieces, though, by far, Kevin Drum’s antipathy was the most noticeable – revising what had previously been written and agreed upon, degenerating into printing out and out lies.

Which brings me back to this interview with Rachel Maddow. She, too, disappointed as she began to not only pivot away from what most viewers always thought was her progressive stance and a cordial treatment of Senator Sanders’ candidacy, to obvious hostility and antipathy toward his campaign, culminating in today’s interview in which she used her introduction to inject her own liberal interpretation of Warren not taking sides until now. But, remember, that is Maddow and the corporate media and not Elizabeth Warren.

Does that mean Warren doesn’t get every statement scrutinized from here on out? No!

Just a few days ago, Warren publicly stated that she is against superdelegates. Just now, she has affirmed her commitment to the progressive causes Sanders ran on and takes his cues from him.

Political Revolution means a sustained effort by an engaged electorate made of voters who are stakeholders in their nation’s political future and not occasional participants. Bernie Sanders captured the hearts and imaginations of a generation of new voters. He also captured, too late in the campaign, the understanding of a segment of voters he neither appealed to or knew how to approach effectively enough and in their own language and imagery. As they got to know him and understand him better, younger African Americans in the Midwest and West began to vote for him in greater numbers.

What the political revolution means is that progressives have rested on their laurels for far too long and allowed the establishment to take control of the Democratic party. That is what Senator Sanders’ candidacy was, is, and will continue to be about – just as Warren said in her interview with Rachel Maddow last night:

“It’s not even about one election. Coming together to help the fight to level the playing field, so that everybody gets a fighting chance.”

There was no selling out by Warren. Not even close. Not yet.

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