Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Bernie Sanders

[G_j]

http://m.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_sen_bernie_sanders_20140302

Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Bernie Sanders (Video)

Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking the story or blowing the whistle. It is not a lifetime achievement award. Rather, we’re looking for newsmakers whose actions in a given week are worth celebrating.

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Bernie Sanders is the U.S. Senate’s only outspoken socialist. He has served the state of Vermont in Congress for more than 20 years, before which he was elected four times to the mayoralty of Burlington. He ran undefeated for every office he sought thereafter. His politics correspond to those that characterized the labor movement before Roosevelt’s New Deal rescued a suicidal American capitalism, and find their contemporary correlation in the policies that for decades have governed northern Europe’s social democracies. He holds that workers have the right to participate in the management of capitalism because, as Abraham Lincoln understood and expressed, all wealth originates with labor.

While societies that regulate capitalism least produce the richest people on earth, the massive deregulation pursued internationally over the last 30 years has confirmed that they also generate the highest percentages of people who live miserably. And it’s not just vast numbers of individuals who suffer. Limitless legions of the unborn stand to miss out on the paradise that could have been had a small portion of their forebears not succumbed to selfishness, and the rest, the inclination to cooperate with leaders who were too inconvenient to oppose.

Social democracies of the kind Sanders would help make of America if he had the necessary support are more humane and sensible than the alternatives. And because they allow for a limited practice of capitalism, which could never be got rid of completely without recourse to the kinds of tyrannies that tainted the idea of economic cooperation in the 20th century, they are presently more practical as an objective for Americans hoping to rescue their country and people beyond its borders from a gathering and intensifying hell.

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A video excerpt and transcript of our exchange edited for clarity and flow immediately follows. For his commitment to the wellbeing of all his fellow Americans expressed therein, we honor Sen. Bernie Sanders as our Truthdigger of the Week.

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[Octafish]

1. Wasn't for Bernie, we wouldn't know The Fed handed out $16 TRILLION in bailout...

...to banks and businesses, foreign and domestic.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2011/09/20/the-feds-16-trillion-bailouts-under-reported/

They didn't do squat for Detroit, but to Wall Street that's another country.

[cali]

2. One thing to know about Vermont: We have lots of people following in

Bernie's footsteps and blazing new ground, as well.

The Vermont Senate has folks like David Zuckerman, organic farmer and Progressive Party member:

Zuckerman ran for the Vermont House in 1994 while still enrolled in college, losing by 59 votes. He ran again two years later and become the fourth Progressive Party member to serve in the Vermont State House, a seat that he held through 2010.[1]

Prior to serving in the House, he served on the Burlington Electric Commission. While in the House he served for 6 years on the Natural Resources and Energy Committee as well as 6 years on the Agriculture Committee, including 4 as the Chairperson. He finished his time in the House of Representatives by serving on the Ways and Means Committee. In 2005, Zuckerman considered running for the sole Vermont seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2006 U.S. House election, that was being vacated by Independent Rep. (now Senator) Bernie Sanders, eventually deciding not to run in order to continue serving as Agriculture Chair in the Vermont House of Representatives.

Zuckerman ran for Vermont State Senate in 2012 and won as a Progressive/Democrat. [2][3]

In his time in the General Assembly, Sen. Zuckerman has been involved in the passage of Vermont's civil union and marriage equality laws, workers' rights legislation, increasing the minimum wage, sustainable (economic and environmental) agricultural policy, marijuana policy reform, election law reform, many renewable energy initiatives, progressive taxation policy as well as universal healthcare.

In January of 2014, Sen. Zuckerman introduced legislation that would allow for recreational sale and use of marijuana. If passed it would allow for possession up to 2 ounces of cannabis, and the cultivation of up to 3 plants for anyone that is 21 and over. It would also have the penalty for under-aged consumption of marijuana be the same as the current penalty± for under-aged drinking.

On April 25, 2006, Zuckerman introduced a resolution for the Vermont legislature to ask the US Congress to impeach President George W. Bush.[4] The motion failed 87-60 in a roll call vote, April 25, 2007.[5]

In 2009, Zuckerman sponsored a same-sex marriage bill which was eventually passed after the house overrode the veto of Gov. Jim Douglas by the necessary 2/3 majority.

Sen. Zuckerman has also been a leader on the following issues; renewable energy, affordable housing, livable wages, instant run-off voting (and other election reform measures), GMO legislation, universal healthcare, progressive taxation and end of life choices

<snip>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Zuckerman_%28politician%29

Vermont has a deep bench of progressive politicians- and as Bernie and Pat are both over 70, that's a good thing.

[G_j]

4. very encouraging!

I imagine that Bernie has helped nourish a strong progressive tradition through his years of selfless service. I know how much he is loved and respected in his state.

[L0oniX]

3. Bernie ...enjoy him while you can. There won't be too many more like him.