Sanders, the Socialist Senator Who Is Shaking Up the Democratic Campaign

Bernie Sanders’ political revolution started with a victory of just 10 votes. In 1981, at the age of 39, Sanders became mayor of Burlington, Vermont, after defeating a historic Democratic leader who had been in office for almost a decade and was looking forward to his fifth term. This was Sanders’ first victory and a real political earthquake. From Burlington, Sanders made his career and created a movement that, after almost four decades, could take him to the White House.

If he succeeds, Sanders will make history: he will be the first Jewish president, the oldest (he would take office at the age of 79) and the first to call himself a “democratic socialist” in a country that fought socialism like no other.

Ever since he started on the path to the White House five years ago, Sanders’ disruptive profile has forced him to deal with resistance from the establishment and with those who do not believe it is possible for him to win. But after the victory in the Nevada caucuses, which boosted his lead in the Democratic primaries, Sanders is better positioned than any other candidate to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee and standard bearer. Sanders has come a long way from that morning of 2015, when he announced his first presidential campaign to a handful of reporters and photographers at a news conference that lasted just 10 minutes in the gardens of Congress. Just like Trump, nobody took him seriously.

“For most Americans, the reality is that they work longer hours for lower wages,” Sanders said at the time, adding that, “at exactly the same time, 99% of all new income generated in this country is going to the top 1%. How does it happen that the top 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%? That type of economics is not only immoral, is not only wrong, it is unsustainable. It can’t continue.”

Sanders has been saying the same thing more or less for decades. The consistency of his message against inequality was the first quality highlighted by his followers, who soon started crowding stadiums, college and school gyms, theaters, parks or any other place in which Sanders happened to be making a campaign stop. Four years ago, Sanders lost the primary race to Hillary Clinton. But nevertheless, he won over young people, moved the Democratic agenda to the left and created a movement that allowed him to pursue another run.

“You can watch videos and interviews on the internet and see that he has been saying the same thing for 40 years. I love his consistency,” said Brenda Runnebaum, aged 42 and unemployed.* Early this month, Runnebaum traveled from Kansas City, Missouri, to Des Moines, Iowa to work as a volunteer in Sanders’ campaign. She was one of many young people that were there, including someone who had flown all the way from Ireland.

“He is not an ordinary politician. He is a humanitarian, an activist with a political position. That is why I support him,” Runnebaum concluded.*

The devotion that Sanders creates in his followers is counterbalanced by the panic of an establishment which is much keener on moderate politicians such as Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Peter Buttigieg (the youngest candidate,) or Sanders’ nemesis, Mike Bloomberg. Trump generated the same feeling as he resolutely moved toward becoming the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.

Sanders proposes a radical transformation of the United States. His platform includes improving public health care and workers’ rights, increasing the minimum wage and taxes for the rich, and setting in motion Herculean investments to stop climate change. That would move the American superpower closer to Europe, Sanders’ model being Denmark.

Bloomberg plainly accused him of being a communist and Trump, who gives him the nickname of “crazy Bernie.” accused Sanders of proposing a socialist take-over in the United States, the country that tried the most to eradicate that ideology.

Sanders answered those claims in a recent interview with Fox News (affiliated with Trump) by saying that “we are living, in many ways, in a socialist society now.” Then, he emphasized that Trump, like many other billionaires, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies. “The difference between my socialism and Trump’s socialism is I believe the government should help working families, not billionaires,” Sanders said.

Sanders’ record includes backing left-leaning leaders and regimes in Latin America. He refused to call Nicolás Maduro a dictator, and he denounced the coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia. In the past, he supported the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the 80s and praised Daniel Ortega, and also praised some of the policies of the Castro brothers’ regime in Cuba, although he admitted it was a dictatorship.

So far, Sanders has survived resistance from the establishment, a heart attack that almost forced him to retire, and damage caused to his image by the most combative and inflexible branch of his movement, a group of radical followers contemptuously called the “Bernie Bros” by Sanders’ critics who have also been accused of being internet trolls.

To his supporters, Sanders is the only candidate capable of electrifying the electorate and uniting moderate and progressive Democrats to defeat Trump. Sanders wants to increase the base of Democratic voters, attract those disillusioned with Washington and those angry at Wall Street, in order to build a “multigenerational” and “multiracial” coalition from the left toward the center. To his critics, Sanders is a delirious populist who seduces crowds with empty promises and ideas so radical that it is impossible for him to convince the more moderate voters and independent voters needed to win. This is just what was said about Trump.

If there is a candidate that the White House seems to fear, it is Sanders. Many assume that Trump will surf to reelection if Sanders is the Democratic candidate. However, days ago, when he was asked about Bloomberg in the Oval Office of the White House, Trump criticized him and said he would rather face Bloomberg than Sanders.

“Look, he is a lightweight. He is a lightweight,” Trump said about Sanders.** “You are going to find that out. He is also one of the worst debaters I have ever seen. And his presence is zero. So, he will spend his 3, 4, $500 million. Maybe they will take it away. Frankly, I would rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders, because Sanders has real followers, whether you like them or not, whether you agree with them or not. I happen to think it is terrible what he says, but he has followers.”

*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, this remark could not be independently verified.

**Editor’s note: The editors believe the author intended this reference to be about Michael Bloomberg.