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kentuck

(111,094 posts)
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 02:32 PM Apr 2015

Bernie Sanders Readies a ‘Which Side Are You On?’ Presidential Bid

John Nichols of The Nation:

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/04/29/bernie-sanders-readies-which-side-are-you-presidential-bid

<snip>
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders told The Nation more than a year ago that he was “prepared to run for president of the United States.” But he said he had to determine whether grassroots activists were ready to back an insurgent progressive-populist candidacy. And he had to sort out the question of how to mount a campaign that he said would require a “political revolution” to upset politics as usual.

Sanders has gotten the answers he was looking for, and aides and allies say that he is preparing to announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination later this week. That’s a big leap for the senator, who has caucused with congressional Democrats but has always been elected as an independent.

Sanders, who Vermont Public Radio says will launch his challenge to the supposed inevitability of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic candidacy on Thursday, made no secret of the fact that he was wrestling with the issue of how to run. The only democratic socialist in the Senate has been a fierce critic of both major parties, and he listened closely over the past year to counsel from those who wanted him to mount an independent or third-party bid and to those who said the only practical option was to run inside the Democratic Party.

The senator always said that he would not be a spoiler—pulling votes from a Democratic nominee in a November race that might tip to a right-wing Republican. And the intensive “Run Bernie Run—as a Democrat” campaign mounted by the group Progressive Democrats of America made the case that Sanders could run his kind of campaign in the Democratic caucuses and primaries.

...more at link

15 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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seabeyond

(110,159 posts)
1. i wont participate in division. i did not read the whole thing. i hope that is not what is being
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 02:39 PM
Apr 2015

suggested.

ok... i will continue to read.

ok. read the whole. and it was hard. cause as suspected it is not sanders dividing with.... which side are you on, like the either with me or against me bullshit. it is the writer that is creating the divide.

one of the things sanders has going for him, he is not the divider. i hope sanders supporters do not make him that, like the article does.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
5. Sen Sanders isn't "dividing the party", and neither is John Nichols of The Nation.
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 04:11 PM
Apr 2015

The party is clearly already divided. In 2008 the progressives sided with Obama and the conservatives sided with Clinton. That divide still exists with the Progressives looking for someone other than Clinton.

One side supports the TPP and fracking for example while the Populist Wing doesn't. The list goes on and on.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
7. You give the author too much credit. The divide already exists. Remember when Rahmbo
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 06:37 PM
Apr 2015

told the Left to sit down and shut up? His side of the Party clearly has a problem with the left. And it showed in his recent reelection. He clearly was on the side of big money as is HRC. Sen Sanders is the Populist choice.

 

seabeyond

(110,159 posts)
9. who is rahmbo? is that another immature name calling slap or something. i do not play the games
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 06:39 PM
Apr 2015

rhett.

go at it, but it is not conducive to what you want.

it is off putting.

sanders is bright enough, and civil enough and of integrity to get that.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
11. Rahm Emanuel is a favorite of the wealthy elites. It's time to support
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 07:10 PM
Apr 2015

candidates that actually want to help the 99%.

Proud Public Servant

(2,097 posts)
4. Well, he'll have a great theme song
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 03:20 PM
Apr 2015

I'm partial to this version, though it's not upbeat enough for a campaign rally. I'm thinking a call to Springsteen may be in order...

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)
15. "I voted against the war in Iraq," he said. "Secretary Clinton voted for it"
Thu Apr 30, 2015, 02:52 AM
Apr 2015

Hard to argue with that logic, isn't it?



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