Cuba USA

Sanders, the socialist who aspires to the White House gains space against Clinton

by: David Brooks

source La Jornada

translation Cuba - Network in Defense of Humanity

He has always said he is a socialist, he always promoted progressive proposals on health, public education, social security and the environment; he has always been a severe critic of the imperial

policies of intervention and unjustifiable wars and always proclaimed to be on the side of the workers and the most vulnerable against an oligarchy that represents 1 percent of the usurped US democracy. Now he calls for a political revolution to rescue his country, in other words, positions that tend to be on the wayside of national political conflicts in the United States.

But for now, these are the positions of the presidential candidate who has held the largest election meetings of the 20 candidates trying for the White House of both parties. Surveys register that he now threatens the queen of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, in some key states. No one foresaw this or imagined it.

The senator Bernie Sanders amazes the political cupola and scares the other pre candidates who search for the nomination of the Democratic Party in the coming presidential elections next year, including the queen of the party. His last meetings have been five times larger than any held by Clinton, to date.

His message is always a frontal attack against economic injustice and the famous one percent and heir to the Occupy Wall Street movement:

“the subject of inequality of wealth and incomes is a great moral subject of our times and the great political subject of our times…We face a multimillionaire class that has bought our political system to become richer”, he explains.

In another speech he added: “what this campaign does is send a strong and clear message to that multimillionaire class: "your greed is destroying the United States". This country belongs to all and not just to a few multi millionaires.

“Our campaign deals with forming a political revolution that tells the multi millionaire class that they cannot have it all; this country, this government belongs to all of us…When we unite, when we don’t

allow them to divide us by color of the skin or sexual orientation, of whether a man or woman was born in the United States or elsewhere;

when we unite there is “nothing or anything we cannot achieve”, he says amidst ovations of his followers. In his campaign web site the message is: Are you ready to begin a political revolution? “nothing we cannot achieve”, he says amidst ovations of his followers

Sanders who has always defined himself as a democratic socialist, independent senator for Vermont; previously he was representatives (he has been in Congress for 24 years) and before a very popular mayor for Burlington in that state (although his origins lie in Brooklyn, New York) where his followers his team are called sanderists. In fact he was one of the critical voices against US policies in Central America during those years.

He has never had the support of the Democratic Party caucus and political leaders, analysts and commentators dismiss his possibilities as a presidential candidate and even the possibility of achieving the White House.

But a very important sector – primarily the young people – of the grass roots of the party surprise the experts and party bosses with their enthusiastic support of the 73 year old politician, noted for his unruly white hair, his simple, frank and furious rhetoric and his Brooklyn accent, his birthplace.

This past month more than 20 thousand persons presented, in an electoral event, Sanders from Portland Oregon and another night he gathered 27 thousand – or more – in Los Angeles (five times more than any other public event of Clinton, the Washington Post reported) followed by thousands of small and medium size cities that darkened, at times, the numbers Barack Obama gathered in his historical campaign of 2007.

Meanwhile, in the cyberspace, more than100 thousand joined a live transmission of 3 500 events throughout the country in the end of July to listen to him talk from his Washington apartment; his page in Facebook has 1,6 million who like Sanders, almost half a million more than Clinton and much more than the other candidates from both parties. Thousands have signed up to do volunteer work in his campaign.

At the same time his index of approval has increased dramatically. A recent survey by CNN has Sanders only six points behind Clinton in New Hampshire (not important for size but because it holds the first primary election; and even more, a state survey had him already in first place) and nationally he registered 10 points in only one month, reaching 29 percent against the 47 percent of Clinton, far more than the other three contenders.

Sander’s campaign is also noteworthy in the source of funds – the large majority from common citizens – compared to the rest, including Clinton where her funds come from a few multi millionaires. In a campaign based on self management; whose promoters explain that the senator moves a massive movement led from the base and not by political professionals.

Some consider that, somehow, like the case of the Donald Trump phenomena in the Republican sphere, the unexpected success of Sanders is due to the fact that the people are sick and tired of professional candidates of the political machinery, although for three decades he has been a politician.

But, in contrast to Trump, Sanders has maintained his commitment to certain progressive principles in his race and has confronted the establishment. Trump is an integral part of that cupola. In fact Sanders has accused the multi millionaire for his anti immigrant message and called him a shame for our country.

The consensus of the experts is that the immense political and multi millionaire machinery of the Clinton campaign will eventually crush all competition, even of the one who is in second place. However, almost everyone has to acknowledge that the presence of Sanders has impacted importantly the political contest and forces all, even Clinton to deal with the subject of 1 against 99 percent as one of the important factors of the great political-electoral dispute in the country.

Meanwhile the fact of the message by Sanders, such as his anger, will resonate massively, reveals the existence of a larger sector of what the experts failed to recognize – led by young people – that favor a deep progressive change, perhaps even a political revolution in this country. And perhaps the word socialist will no longer be a taboo in this country.

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