Bernie Sanders’s Next Challenge

[Uncle Joe]

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/bernie-sanderss-next-challenge

In December of last year, I quoted a statement Bernie Sanders made as he launched his “Economic Agenda for America,” a twelve-point plan designed to tackle wage stagnation and promote high-paying jobs. “We have a corporate establishment whose greed is destroying the economy, a political establishment which is beholden to billionaires, and a media establishment which largely ignores the major issues facing working families,” he said. “We need a political revolution.”

At the time, the seventy-three-year-old Vermont senator was mulling a Presidential bid, but few commentators or Democratic voters were paying much attention to him. Now, of course, his standing in the political world is very different, but his language isn’t. “We have a message to the billionaire class, and that message is you can’t have it all,” he told a crowd, estimated at more than twenty-five thousand, in Los Angeles earlier this week. “You can’t get huge tax breaks when children in our country are going hungry. . . . You cannot continue to hide billions in profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. Corporate America and the billionaire class are going to start paying their fair share of taxes.”

(snip)

And, of course, Sanders’s contribution can’t be measured solely in polling numbers. In lambasting tax-dodging corporate élites and highlighting the corrosive effect that money is having on U.S. politics, he is telling truths that need to be told and giving voice to the feelings of many Americans, particularly young Americans, who feel alienated by the current system. Not only that: with Sanders leading the way, progressives are pushing the rest of the Democratic Party to the left, which could have a lasting impact on policy should the Democrats go onto retain the White House.

(snip)

In trying to move beyond his white liberal base, Sanders faces a huge challenge, but it would be folly to underestimate him. Thanks to the groundswell of support among progressive activists, young Democrats, and small donors, he has the money, the manpower, and the social-media presence to expand his footprint. And with televised Democratic debates starting in the fall,* he will have the opportunity to introduce himself to a broader audience. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it seems likely that more potential Democratic voters will warm to his message.

[cantbeserious]

1. No Citizen Need Settle For The Lesser Of Two Corporate Evils - Go Bernie Go

eom

[Faux pas]

2. Kick!!!

[musiclawyer]

3. " in trying to move beyond his white liberal base ...."

The false premise says it all. His base is liberals. All of them, and they come in all colors and stripes. The MSM is full of fools. They just don't know we know it.

[Uncle Joe]

4. I agree, they're trying to cement a pigeonhole for him.

Bernie's biggest challenge is actually name recognition but I believe that's changing for the better every day.

[restorefreedom]

5. his biggest challenge

is the corporatist m$m which has been against him from day one.

[appalachiablue]

6. +1. Break up the 5 Media Monopolies!! Viacom, Disney, Fox, Comcast, Time Warner.

[restorefreedom]

7. yup. some people don't realize they are getting slanted "news." nt