Bernie Sanders Could Not Have Done What He Did Yesterday

[Truth2Tell]

Senator Bernie Sanders could not have done what he did yesterday on our behalf had enough Americans not made the choice to vote for someone other than a Republican or Democrat.

That's just a fact.

[dkf]

1. You mean Vermonters?

It's a pretty small state you know.

[Truth2Tell]

5. They're still Americans last time I checked.

And without their collective decision to support an Independent candidate yesterday's performance would not have happened.

[cali]

2. well,

here's the thing; the Vermont dems don't put up anyone against bernie In fact, the dem party endorses him. And it's Vermont. We're a weird little place.

[Truth2Tell]

3. Maybe we need to turn more of America

into a weird little place.

[Johonny]

7. maybe we need to break the senate up into small population areas

why is it set in stone as two per state? The concept of America as a collection of city states is long dead but the stupid under representation of the vast majority of Americas population in it remains. Vermont is lucky to be small, imagine if say the city of San Francisco got two senators.

[RKP5637]

11. America is in a rut and probably will be for a long long time. Americans are

too apathetic to change anything. Another incredibly dumb thing is the electoral college. But yet topping that is how we fund our elections. I'll stop here ...

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Wisconsin used to be a weird little place,

with German socialists running Milwaukee and Scandinavian socialists running the northern tier along Lake Superior.

But something has been going badly wrong lately.

[Truth2Tell]

16. something has been going badly wrong lately

You can say that again.

[Better Believe It]

4. When Sanders ran for and was elected to the House he beat the Republican and Democratic candidates

They learned from that "mistake" and now the Republicans only put up an unwinnable token candidate for Senator and the Democratic Party didn't even bother when Sanders ran for Senator.

[dkf]

6. If Howard ran he probably would have won.

[cali]

9. not against bernie.

[dkf]

10. Did they ever poll it?

[cali]

8. the dems endorsed him in the Senate race

[Better Believe It]

12. What else could they do? Try to run against Sanders again and look like a piece of crap?

[cali]

13. look, I hate to break this to you but bernie has

strong ties with the vermont dem party. furthermore, vermont dems are almost uniformly pretty terrific. sure, we have our duds, but most of the dem folks in the state house are people I'm happy are there.

[Truth2Tell]

14. None of that invalidates the point of my OP. nt

[Better Believe It]

21. Vermont Democratic leaders got burned once opposing Senator Sanders. They aren't stupid!

Senator Sanders has not yet, and may never join the Democratic Party.

Why do you think that is?

Perhaps he has more political credibility remaining an independent socialist Senator.

That's one possiblity which you might reject.

Can you think of any other credible reasons for Senator Sanders reluctance to join or act as a spokesman for the Democratic Party?

I'm listening.

[Puregonzo1188]

18. Currently, but I thought that wasn't always true?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[mdmc]

17. ..

ibtl

[Truth2Tell]

19. seems like

the fact that it was only an Independent - free of the leash of a Party - who could politically afford to step out of line on behalf of the people, should tell us something about the current failings of our own Party. Seems to me this is a legitimate line of discussion about reform within the Democratic Party and about why we need it. When so many of our own top people are owned we need to call that out. Pointing out the actions of an Independent helps put that in stark relief.

[eridani]

20. They made a choice to vote for someone who had a very long record of holding political office--

--in the state he represents. Too bad more progressives (Dem or otherwise) did not take running for local offices more seriously in the early 70s.