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Have The Times Finally Caught Up With Bernie Sanders

Published by Huffington Post on Sat, 15 Aug 2015


Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), stumping in Iowa May 28th, 2015Politics isn't safe. It makes throwing down money in Las Vegas look like a sound investment. You speak your mind, make some promises and have nothing to show for it except how many people are still listening when your're done. In a business where your very words are your currency, the picture people have of you in their head becomes more important than who you actually are. Not because who you are isn't crucial to your campaign, but because the idea of who you are is the one people vote for, the one remembered, the one for the ages (The actual you can be found on Wikipedia if anyone's interested. ) But the brand you build, in this great capitalist culture for the consumers, where branding is the great Mecca, is what all politicians desire so desperately, crave in their dreams and hire handlers, managers and experts to craft. The idea of who you are has no clay feet, no doubt, no dirty laundry, it's clean. It's simple, it's the distilled you, and one you hope the voters want. The crafty attack spin doctors hired to destroy you try to create the toxic picture of you in people's heads for exactly the same reason. Here's what's weird. The idea of Bernie Sanders is very close to who Bernie Sanders really is. His track record is solid and consistent. One gets the impression he hasn't hired spin doctors to create his talking points, and he's not harnessing focus groups to find out what topic is trending best, because he's been saying the same thing for decades. In the world of political consumerism where candidates are packed, labeled, issued talking points and prepared answers, he hasn't come up with something new to sell. With him what's old is new again. As hard as it is to believe in this world of politics, he is as good as his word.Today, and this week, we'll see how far that plays in Iowa. The first state in the nation that by law must hold the first political caucus for political candidates every four years. Iowans are normal people, tough with commons sense, and no candidate who's ever placed lower than third went on to be President. So this week's fair will have much glad handing. People have said he was ahead of his time. Maybe he still is. He was for gay marriage 30 years ago. He's been against the banks and wall streets and income equality as long ago as the 80s when 'greed is good' Gecko's mantra fueled an entire me-ism culture. He chastised Greenspan at a hearing in 2003 for his blind spot for the warning signs of the economy, about the loss of jobs, about how Walmart had replaced the car companies as the largest employer in America, and how millionaires and country clubs are the exception, not the rule. Five years later we saw the greatest economic collapse in this country since the great depression. In May he proposed a bill breaking up the big banks. He's for taxing wall street and changing the vast income equality problems: If an institution is too big to fail, it's too big to exist and that's the bottom lineBy contrast on July 15th on capital hill in her fist financial policy speech Clinton said:"As a former senator from New York, I know firsthand the role that Wall Street can and should play in our economy, helping Main Street grow and prosper and boosting new companies that make America more competitive globally." There were some comments about reigning in risky banking practices, but nothing more than a rhetorical tongue lashing and nothing like the progressive comments from the Senator from Vermont. In fact Wall Street is reportedly worried that Sanders will push Clinton left.What started as a passion play on April 29th for Bernie Sanders, an upstart candidacy seemingly designed as a statement, a symbolic run to get the issues forefront, has turned to a populist groundswell. Sanders threw his hat in the ring to bring the issues forward and take his shot. Perhaps he was as tired as we were of hearing the daily dose of squealers go on about raising the retirement age, or holding the budget for ransom again, most recently on new challenges to abortion laws, or to yet another challenge to to the Affordable Care Act.He told the Associated Press the day he announced he was running: People should not underestimate me. I've run outside the two party system, defeating Democrats and Republicans., taking on big money candidates, and you know, I think the message that has resonated in Vermont is a message that can resonate all over this country.He immediately announced the issues of trade, health care and the massive wealth in income inequality in this country as central to his campaign.In the past three weeks alone he has staged rallies where tens of thousands have come to see him speak. Most strikingly the numbers were 28,000 in Portland and the same in Los Angeles in the same week. No other candidate is having that kind of draw right now, and few are trying the same tact.Initially described as a thorn in the side of the Clinton campaign, Sanders is now a legitimate challenge. Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmiere said on NBC in July when Sanders stumped in Iowan in June: "We're worried about him, sure. He's a force. I think we underestimated that Sanders would quickly attract so many Democrats in Iowa who were likely to support Hillary." . There is also talk that he's taking energy away from her campaign. A stunning turn of events from a 73 year old socialist democrat who's the lone independent Senator. Meanwhile on the ground in Iowa today Trump, who chided Sanders for not taking on the Black Lives Matter activists as 'weak' is walking the grounds of the Iowa State Fair and not making a Trump Stump speech because of his ongoing feud with the Des Moines Iowa Register. Clinton, in her own way is also avoiding the classic soap box speeches, but choosing to meet small groups in private settings, her strategy since she announced she was running. Sanders, by contrast, is giving a speech and having it moved to a larger venue in Demoins today to handle the large crowds they are expecting. The real problem now for the other candidates is that Sanders has generated his own critical mass and his movement keeps building. Sanders continual message is one of inclusion, a platform that doesn't preach hate. He talks of strengthening and not rolling back existing abortion laws, voting laws, and financial laws. He demands all those listening to become part of the process or there can be no real change. A continual response from his supporters is that he speaks the truth. This week we'll see how the truth plays out in Iowa.Photo credit: Glenn Russell/FreePress -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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