Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders is running for President as a Democrat, and the nation will benefit from his candidacy in so many ways.
It will make at least one competitor against Hillary Clinton, an essential step, as no one should ever be unchallenged for a Presidential nomination.
It will force Hillary Clinton to move to the populist left, and to take bold stands on many issues, and if she fails to do so, do not think that it is impossible for Sanders to win the nomination.
If Barack Obama could win, a real long shot, it is conceivable, although not likely, that Sanders could go all the way.
The Iowa Caucuses could favor Bernie, as Clinton only ended up third behind Barack and John Edwards in 2008.
The New Hampshire Primary will again be crucial, and Sanders being a New Englander, could have a shot at winning in this neighboring state to Vermont.
Were Hillary to lose both the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, she could be in trouble.
The campaign will allow people to see that Sanders, an independent Socialist who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, is not a “monster” because he is Socialist; that he is perfectly harmless and simply speaks for people who are not rich, and cares about the middle class and the poor, the environment, and reviving the “American Dream”.
Sanders is the longest serving Independent member of either house of Congress in all of American history—16 years in the House of Representatives, and 10 in the Senate by 2016, making him one of the most experienced people in government ever to run for President.
Sanders will be able to show that Socialism brought us so many of the programs we accept as normal in America–Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Compensation, Minimum Wages, Maximum Hours, Sick Leave, Vacation Time, Labor Unions, Aid to Farmers, Public Education, Environmental Protection, Consumer Protection, Civil Rights, and so many other great initiatives that have made America a better place. And it has not led to dictatorship, loss of civil liberties, or any other ridiculous fear that the right wing loves to promote.
Bernie Sanders is a very genuine, kind, gentle man, who is gruff in his voice and rhetoric, because of his passion for those who are not connected to the corporate interests; but he will refuse to run a nasty campaign of attacks or allow himself to be corrupted by corporate money.
Sanders is a true man of the people, and he will elevate the discussion and the tone of the upcoming Presidential campaign of 2016!
Sanders would also be the second Jew to have announced for President, after Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in 2004, although Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota was reported to be planning to run the same year had he not been killed in a small plane crash in 2002.
Bernie Sanders is in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Hubert H. Humphrey!
There are two points, for the time being, that I am considering:
1) The double standard allowing so-called extremism (for however much of that one believes) represented in Republican presidential candidates but not Democratic candidates should not continue. The Republican candidates wanting to go more right should be countered by Democratic candidates wanting to go more left—in their arguments about the direction, as they would say, the country needs to take—must be presented to The People.
2) Bernie Sanders running is a win for the health of the Democratic Party. To not have what he would represent—which is very relatable to everyone in the nation who are not among the 1 percent—would render the Democratic Party a transactional rather than a possibly transformative party.
D, I am in total agreement with you!
Amen to this, Professor!