That he is, Bill, that he is! On this we agree.
Don't you love it when liberals swoon over Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the only avowed socialist in the U.S. Senate? Operative word here -- "avowed." Sanders, to his credit, has the courage to be transparent in his political beliefs. Many of his ideological cohorts on Capitol Hill aren't as bold and describe themselves instead with the squishy euphemism "progressive," despite the fact that the policies they support are indistinguishable from those advocated by Sanders. (Audio after the jump)
2014 is gotta be (sic) our focus, but when you look ahead to 2016, it ain't all Hillary and it ain't all Joe Biden. Bernie Sanders is saying we need somebody out there who is really going to carry the progressive torch, the progressive issues, and fight like a real strong liberal Democrat, somebody who's there only to fight for the middle class, not for Wall Street, not for the oil companies, no no no. And Bernie says, basically, he has told The Nation magazine yesterday in an exclusive interview that if nobody else will do it, he is prepared to run. That's as far as he's going. He says here, quote, to The Nation, 'I am prepared to run for president of the United States. I don't believe that I am the only person out there who can fight this fight, but I am certainly prepared to look seriously at that race.'
He says if he were to run, he's not sure whether he would run as an independent, third-party candidate where he's a little afraid he said of the Nader factor or the Nader dilemma as he called it, or to run as a Democrat in the Democratic primary. He is now an independent, of course, and he caucuses with the Democratic Party in the Senate.
But I gotta tell you, if you want somebody who's good on our issues, if you want somebody who is the definition of a proud, true-blue progressive Democrat, it's Bernie Sanders of Vermont. I would love to see him in this race and I would love to see him in the debates!
Not much else that unapologetic conservatives and neo-New Deal liberals agree on these days, but the sheer awesomeness of a Sanders run for president might be one of them. If Sanders jumped in that still-distant race, imagine how many other left wingers in media will sigh in delight while recounting his "strong liberal" and "progressive" credentials -- while somehow managing to avoid mention of his socialism.
A fellow blogger's reaction after I played the Press clip for him -- so can they stop acting offended when we call Obama a socialist? True, Obama's is a stealth socialism, but still.
