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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernie Sanders is the leader America needs now. Just NOT by running for president in 2020
http://www.philly.com/opinion/commentary/bernie-sanders-presidential-run-trump-elizabeth-warren-20190113.html **snip**
But heres the thing: Bernie Sanders absolutely should NOT run for president again.
While his 2016 run was electrifying, historic and changed the direction of American politics, I believe a 2020 bid would prove divisive and could tarnish his legacy. It would also ignore the reality that the senator clearly has a lot more to give his country -- but as the spiritual and intellectual leader of the movement that hes built over a half-century, not as an Oval Office hopeful.
This is a very, very hard thing for me to write. After all, Im the guy who (for 30 days, anyway) changed my longtime voter registration from independent to Democrat just so I could vote for Sanders in the Pennsylvania primary. Heres what I wrote, specifically, in the spring of 2016: On April 26, I am going to vote for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as if my life depended on it. Its just that important. The previous fall, with the cadences of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson ringing in my ears, Id followed Sanders around the country and talked to scores of his supporters to produce an e-book that tried to capture the revolutionary fervor of his movement.
In my piece urging a 2016 Sanders vote, I praised the fact that the senator had managed to form an idealistic vision of a better America during the 1960s and clung to that in the face of the kind of pressures that cause most politicians to sell out their principles. Three years later, Bernie still hasnt changed. But something else important has changed: The times. The zeitgeist, if you will.
But heres the thing: Bernie Sanders absolutely should NOT run for president again.
While his 2016 run was electrifying, historic and changed the direction of American politics, I believe a 2020 bid would prove divisive and could tarnish his legacy. It would also ignore the reality that the senator clearly has a lot more to give his country -- but as the spiritual and intellectual leader of the movement that hes built over a half-century, not as an Oval Office hopeful.
This is a very, very hard thing for me to write. After all, Im the guy who (for 30 days, anyway) changed my longtime voter registration from independent to Democrat just so I could vote for Sanders in the Pennsylvania primary. Heres what I wrote, specifically, in the spring of 2016: On April 26, I am going to vote for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as if my life depended on it. Its just that important. The previous fall, with the cadences of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson ringing in my ears, Id followed Sanders around the country and talked to scores of his supporters to produce an e-book that tried to capture the revolutionary fervor of his movement.
In my piece urging a 2016 Sanders vote, I praised the fact that the senator had managed to form an idealistic vision of a better America during the 1960s and clung to that in the face of the kind of pressures that cause most politicians to sell out their principles. Three years later, Bernie still hasnt changed. But something else important has changed: The times. The zeitgeist, if you will.
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Bernie Sanders is the leader America needs now. Just NOT by running for president in 2020 (Original Post)
SidDithers
Jan 2019
OP
To me he is not a leader. He is a Senator from a state that reelects him. What I think of him
wasupaloopa
Jan 2019
#1
wasupaloopa
(4,516 posts)1. To me he is not a leader. He is a Senator from a state that reelects him. What I think of him
can't be said here.
agingdem
(7,851 posts)2. agree...
and it's time for the us to move forward....Bernie is divisive as hell plus he's not a Democrat...enough said...
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)3. K&R
FarPoint
(12,424 posts)4. I am not inspired....
I doubt seriously that he is the ONE...
aikoaiko
(34,182 posts)5. Bernie is practically begging other candidates to carry the message.
Warren throwing her hat in would probably be enough, but the Boston Globe is already telling her not to run either.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/boston-globe-elizabeth-warren-2020_us_5c09cff3e4b0b6cdaf5d8883
comradebillyboy
(10,174 posts)6. How can a person who can't work well with others be a leader?
Cha
(297,447 posts)9. Excellent question. Answer:
he's not.
comradebillyboy
(10,174 posts)11. I know...
ismnotwasm
(41,998 posts)7. Well the article sings his praises
I might not agree with all of the content but I certainly agree with the conclusion
jrthin
(4,836 posts)8. Agreed. I do wish these opinion makers/writers would stop
telling me what I am thinking. Many of them haven't a clue.
Gothmog
(145,444 posts)10. Good editorial
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)12. I support members of the Democratic Party. NT