Wherever Bernie Sanders goes, thousands of people want to hear him speak. Why? Because they are tired of pretense. How can it be that the US has grown richer as a country, but almost all of this new wealth has gone to the super-rich? Sanders blames a “rigged economy” and a system of legalized bribery in which political contributions result in legislation that benefits the rich and powerful.
Since 1981, Sanders has held elected office, always without a major-party affiliation. He describes himself as a European-style social democrat, saying there is plenty of room for private enterprise as long as workers’ rights are respected. Sanders has been running an exemplary campaign, answering questions about policy directly, offering substantive proposals, and rarely criticizing his opponents.
Bernie Sanders speaks in Phoenix, Arizona, July 18, 2015. Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC2.0)
Bernie Sanders
Stated priorities: reducing inequality of wealth, income and opportunity; free higher education; public funding of elections; opposing free trade
Current age: 73
Age on election day: 75Career path: mayor of Burlington, representative from Vermont, then senator from Vermont
Marriages: 2
Children: 1 + 3 stepchildren
Religion: Jewish
Religious fervor: 0
Campaign funds: $$
Skeletons in closet: 0
Clown factor: 0
Cuckoo factor: 0
Ability to stretch the truth: 0
Distinguishing features: angry scowl
Best resembles: actor Larry David
Gimmicky product: “Feel the Bern” hot sauce
Campaign video
Why they won’t elect him
Sanders is known for his principled stands rather than for his legislation. Although he has worked well with the Democrats in Congress and is highly respected by them, he has rarely had their support for the kind of changes he would like to make.
The media and pollsters have only started to take Sanders seriously
The corporate-owned media and the pollsters ignored Sanders almost completely during the initial months of his campaign. The largest political gathering in the history of the United States — when Sanders supporters mobilized 100,000 participants on July 29, 2015 — was only sparsely reported. Sanders filling a 20,000-seat stadium in Portland, Oregon, with an overflow crowd of 8,000 outside, was barely acknowledged.
Fox News does mention him occasionally, but never fails to label him a “socialist”, a term Sanders himself uses, however inaccurately.
At age 75, Sanders is the oldest candidate in the race and would be the oldest president ever to be elected.
Finally, the party establishment will be very skeptical of supporting a candidate who has not been a member of their party, let alone one who rejects its courtship of donors — unless he wins the primary elections by a significant margin. His main Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, has systematically been securing the endorsements of as many key members of the party as possible.
Why they might
Sanders is one of very, very few politicians who have been consistent in their positions over an entire career and have acted accordingly. If there is any chance at all for reform in Washington, this is it.
Sanders’ economic message and promise to break up the big banks resonate with a public that is still angry about the man-made global economic crisis.
Sanders is drawing larger crowds than Barack Obama in 2007
Despite the lack of media coverage, Sanders has consistently drawn larger crowds than even Barack Obama at this stage of the campaign. Like Obama, Sanders has an energized base of young people, and he is attracting interest from independents and Republicans. Thousands of individual contributors have been financing a campaign that will not accept donations on behalf of corporations.
Sanders has made clear that if he does not receive the Democratic Party’s nomination, he will not run as an independent candidate in this election.
In his own words
“For 40 years, the middle class of this country has been disappearing, and there has been a huge transfer of trillions of dollars of wealth from working families to the top one-tenth of one percent. … The people of this country are saying, ‘Enough is enough. Our government [and] our country belong to all of us and not just a few billionaires.’”
Best quote about him
“BS is the only candidate not full of BS.” (YouTube user “computerfile”, June 2015)
Official website
