Sanders Bernard - The essential Bernie Sanders and his vision for America

Copyright 2015 by Jonathan Tasini.

All rights reserved.

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First printing August 2015.

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For my parents,

and for Donna Parson, who spent a lifetime mentoring and encouraging countless people who are building a progressive world. She walked the walk every day.

Contents

Preface

Ive been involved in politics my whole life, from stuffing envelopes to knocking on doors in all kinds of weather to working closely with politicians. So my bullshit alarm is on a hair-trigger alert in the presence of most politiciansand it goes off with regularity, even among those I agree with.

A couple of years ago, something different happened. Over the course of a couple of days in 2013, I spent a number of hours chatting with Bernie Sanders for an interview for Playboy . To be sure, it was a pleasureunfortunately, too rare an experienceto be with a member of Congress who actually had an informed, complex understanding of the issues facing the people. Its a deep understanding steeped in a worldview that seeks to represent the regular person, not because it tests well in polls but because Bernie believes what he says.

When I walked out of Bernie Sanders office, aside from the energy one feels from a good policy give-and-take, I was left with an unusually strong sense of something else: authenticity .

Authenticity is hard to manufactureand as we all know, politicians of all stripes spend many hours and millions of dollars to painfully, and often comically, try to say to voters, Im like you; Im real.

But authenticity is easy to explain. Its a simple sense: Here it is. Here is what I believe from deep inside. I dont need to convene a think-a-thon of consultants and other sycophants to tell me what I should believe. This is me.

That is the essence of Bernie Sanders. No bullshit. Unvarnished opinions and beliefs.

Now Bernie carries that authenticity into the national arena in his quest to become president of the United States. As I write these words, tens of thousands of people have already swarmed to hear him speak the truth at mass rallies in arenas and halls across the nation.

To be clear: This is an electorally successful politician, elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont (as an independent), four times beginning in 1981, serving as the states lone member in the US House of Representatives from 1990 to 2006, and finally, in 2006, ascending to the US Senate.

Which elicits a question some have asked about his inspiring campaign for the White House: Why is the longest-serving independent in Congress, who describes himself without hesitation as a Democratic Socialist, running for president in the Democratic Party primaries?

To be sure, some of it is practical. Unless you are a billionaire, its virtually impossible to win a national election as an independent in the dominant two-party system (and even, as Ross Perot proved, being a billionaire does not make it a cinch). Some of it has to do with branding and the corrupted nature of Super-PAC-fueled elections in the post Citizens United world, a topic Bernie feels passionately about, as you will read in this book.

But there is something more here. In an exchange we had back in 2013, I asked Bernie whether he thinks people understand the term class warfare , which is at the heart of his orations about how the historic divide between rich and poor is ripping apart the nation.

He replied: Sometimes people come up to me and say Im courageous for saying all these things. I say, Im not courageous. Go look at these guys who want to give more tax breaks to billionaires and cut programs for working families. That is incredibly courageous because the vast majority of the American people think thats crazy. The polling says: Dont cut Social Security; dont cut Medicare; dont cut Medicaid. Ask the wealthy and large corporations to pay more taxes. The political question is, why have the Republicans not been reduced to a 15 percent marginal third party? [The answer is] most people do not perceive a heck of a lot of difference between either party. The Democrats are too diffuse, and their message is so unclear the American people dont see the real difference.

This is the essence of his belief that he can win: He is certain that if he speaks boldly, clearly, honestly, and authentically, he can win the Democratic nomination for president, and the party he leads can win everywherein all fifty statesand relegate a regressive anti-worker, pro-corporate Republican Party to rump status. It would be a party transformed, with a standard-bearer who would not hesitate to say exactly what he believes, as this book lays out, whether he is walking the streets of Newark, Tampa, Eugene, Detroit, or Dallas, trekking from the Deep South to the Midwest, or traveling from sea to shining sea.

The goal of this book is to present to the country, in a succinct way, Bernies authenticity and his accomplishments, a vision that he believes is a winning agenda because it exactly reflects, whatever labels one sticks on the messenger, the desires and beliefs of a majority of people. No one should underestimateand Bernie does notthe challenge of winning the White House; it is a steep climb for a whole set of logistical and organizational reasons.

But what is laid out here is a simple point: His path to victory is possible because, in his authenticity, his views are Americas views.

Bernie Sanders carries with him a hope and vision for a twenty-first-century caring, sustainable, more just and fair United States of America.

I aimed to be brief. Each chapter is short. Each chapter can be read on its own, depending on a readers interest. Ive used Bernies direct words, mostly from speeches on the floor of the Senate or House or in statements hes made, because he usually does so with very concrete explanations and descriptions of a problem that any reader can follow. Each chapter has my own short introduction to give some background and ends with specific steps Bernie has taken to implement his views.