Like it or not, Bernie Sanders has become the de facto leader of the Democratic Party. Even the establishment media is waking up - granted a year too late.

"That's the future of the Democratic Party," Joe Scarborough, echoing Mika Brzezinski's sentiment, said on Morning Joe Monday. "He sounds just as relevant today as he did a year ago."

The one-time progressive rock star - who activists tried to summon to run in 2016 with hopes of bringing down Hillary Clinton - has already made moves that many inside the Beltway believe are a precursor to a run in 2020.

Progressive Movement Sour on One of its Stars.    Most progressive voters and activists became disenchanted with Elizabeth Warren and her perceived cowardice during the Democratic Primary - where she dodged on endorsing the most progressive candidate to run since FDR. While the anti-Wall Street senator was wildly popular in her home-state of Massachusetts, she decided not to endorse Sanders before the Super Tuesday primary. Sanders lost Massachusetts by less than 2%, causing progressives to believe the state and momentum - would have gone to Sanders had Warren endorsed and campaigned with him across the state.

Larger than her Massachusetts mistake, Warren's choice to passionately campaign for Clinton - the antithesis of all she proclaimed to stand against during her meteoric rise isn't a fact progressive Sanders aficionados will simply forgive and forget.

Furthermore, Warren - along with the corporate media - was inexplicably MIA during the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, saying nothing as thousands of unarmed, peaceful Native Americans and environmental activists were illegally arrested and shot at with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, freezing water, and grenades by de facto oil police in North Dakota.

So, the time for choosing is upon Warren. She must decide: what do I truly stand for? Right now, there's a large swath of the progressive movement that's no longer sure.