Vermont poised to elect America's first socialist senator

[IndianaGreen]

Vermont poised to elect America's first socialist senator

· Cantankerous campaigner strikes chord with voters
· New milestone nears after eight terms in Congress

Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 2, 2006
The Guardian

Amid the furious debate over Iraq and the speculation that George Bush may be a lame duck after next Tuesday's mid-term elections, an extraordinary political milestone is approaching: a cantankerous 65-year-old called Bernie looks set to become the first socialist senator in US history.

Bernie Sanders is so far ahead in the contest for Vermont's vacant seat for the US Senate that it seems only sudden illness or accident could derail his rendezvous with destiny, after eight terms as the state's only congressman. His success flies in the face of all the conventional wisdom about American politics.

He is an unapologetic socialist and proud of it. Even his admirers admit that he lacks social skills, and he tends to speak in tirades. Yet that has not stopped him winning eight consecutive elections to the US House of Representatives.

"Twenty years ago when people here thought about socialism they were thinking about the Soviet Union, about Albania," Mr Sanders told the Guardian in a telephone interview from the campaign trail. "Now they think about Scandinavia. In Vermont people understand I'm talking about democratic socialism."

Democratic socialism, however, has hardly proved to be a vote-winning formula in a country where even the word "liberal" is generally treated as an insult. Until now the best showing in a Senate race by a socialist of any stripe was in 1930 by Emil Seidel, who won 6% of the vote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1937064,00.html

[democrank]

1. Proudly have a red BERNIE sign on the lawn.

On Tuesday, I`ll help send a Democratic Socialist to Washington.

[Eric J in MN]

2. We may have a bunch of firsts on November 7, 2006.

Deval Patrick elected first black governor of Massachusetts.

Keith Ellison elected first black person to go to US Congress from Minnesota, and the first Muslim in Congress.

Harold Ford (maybe) elected first black Senator from Tennessee.