Who's the more 'serious' presidential candidate: Rand Paul or Bernie Sanders?

Laura Clawson

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday May 06, 2015 · 7:02 PM PDT

2015/05/06 · 19:02

no image description available — Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-VT)

Senator-elect Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is interviewed by a Reuters reporter at Sanders' office in Burlington, Vermont November 28, 2006. Sanders, a 16-year veteran of the House of Representatives who swept 65 percent of the vote in Vermont running as an inde

Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-VT)

Jeb Bush and Rand Paul are "serious" Republican presidential candidates and Bernie Sanders is a Democratic side note, if not outright fringe candidate, right? That really depends how you measure things. Let's take a look at the primary polling averages.

In Iowa, Bernie Sanders is polling at 14 percent in the Democratic caucus. On the Republican side, Scott Walker leads with 20.4 percent. But Jeb Bush pulls in 12.7 percent, Mike Huckabee is at 9.4 percent, and Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry are all trailing those numbers.

In New Hampshire, Sanders is polling at 12 percent. Among Republicans, just Bush and Walker are above 12 percent.

Look, I get it. With Hillary Clinton polling above 60 percent in the Democratic presidential primary, it's true that Sanders is a very long shot to win the nomination, while Republicans have a huge field and a race that's very much up in the air. From the chance-of-winning standpoint, 12 or 14 percent in the Democratic primaries is not 12 or 14 percent in the Republican primaries. But if what we're talking about is how much a candidate and his message resonates with voters and how seriously his policy ideas should be treated, then, for the moment at least, the polling says that Bernie Sanders is more real than Rand Paul or Marco Rubio.

Fri May 01, 2015 at 12:30 PM PT: And then there's this:

Bernie Sanders raised $1.5M in the first 24 hours of his campaign. Rand raised $1M in that time period; Cruz raised $4M over 8 days.

— @rebeccaballhaus

Sanders tells Stephanopoulos: America needs a 'Political Revolution' for Working Families

jamess

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 06, 2015 · 7:02 PM PDT

2015/05/06 · 19:02

Thank you ABC News and and George Stephanopoulos for giving a Progressive Candidate a forum, on your national "Political Viewpoints" show.

More please.

Sen. Bernie Sanders Says America Needs 'Political Revolution' in 2016

by Ben Siegel via This Week, abcnews.go.com -- May 3, 2015

Newly declared presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders said today he hopes to lead a "political revolution" for working families and against money in politics in his bid for the White House.
"I think I'm the only candidate who's prepared to take on the billionaire class," Sanders, I-Vt., told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week." "We need a political revolution in this country involving millions of people who are prepared to stand up and say, enough is enough, and I want to help lead that effort."
[...]

ThisWeek Transcript, May 3, 2015: [H/T to Adam B for the link.]

[...]
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Senator Bernie Sanders joins us now. Welcome to "This Week." Why are you the best choice for president of the United States?
SANDERS: Because for the last 30 years, I've been standing up for the working families of this country, and I think I'm the only candidate who's prepared to take on the billionaire class, which now controls our economy, and increasingly controls the political life of this country. We need a political revolution in this country involving millions of people who are prepared to stand up and say, enough is enough, and I want to help lead that effort.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So does that mean that Hillary Clinton is part of the billionaire class?

SANDERS: It means that Hillary Clinton has been part of the political establishment for many, many years. I have known Hillary for some 25 years. I respect her and I like her, but I think what the American people are saying, George, is that at a time when 99 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent, and when the top 0.1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, maybe it's time for a real political shakeup in this country and go beyond establishment politics.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You are asking for a lot of shakeup. Is it really possible for someone who calls himself a socialist to be elected president of the United States?

SANDERS: Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is. And if we know that in countries, in Scandinavia, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, they are very democratic countries, obviously. The voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, health care is the right of all people. And in those countries, college education, graduate school is free. In those countries, retirement benefits, childcare are stronger than in the United States of America. And in those countries, by and large, government works for ordinary people and the middle class, rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the billionaire class.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I can hear the Republican attack ad right now. He wants American to look more like Scandinavia.

SANDERS: That's right. That's right. And what's wrong with that? What's wrong when you have more income and wealth equality? What's wrong when they have a stronger middle class in many ways than we do, higher minimum wage than we do, and they are stronger on the environment than we do? Look, the fact of the matter is, we do a lot in our country, which is good, but we can learn from other countries. We have, George, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth, at the same time as we are seeing a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires. Frankly, I don't think that is sustainable. I don't think that's what America is about.
[...]

clenchner

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday May 02, 2015 · 6:21 AM PDT

2015/05/02 · 06:21

Right after Bernie Sanders announced his intention to run, grassroots supporters from the occupy, labor, environmental and socialist movements published an open letter endorsing his candidacy.

We are activists and organizers trying to build a broad, effective movement for democratic change. We come from different backgrounds, and were inspired by different issues and fights for peace, rights and the planet. Our goal is a government that carries out the will of the people, and not serve to increase the profits of the 1% at the expense of the rest of us.
To that end we support Bernie Sanders in his bid to become the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. We stand firmly behind Senator Sanders as the strongest progressive possibility in the race right now. His commitment to our values is one of long standing commitment. Sanders is the bold alternative.

As a truly progressive candidate for the Democratic Party nomination, Senator Sanders has the chance to inspire millions of Americans with policy proposals that put the interests of the 99%, front and center.

Franklin D. Roosevelt called out the “economic royalists” of his day. Senator Sanders is picking up the banner. He answers to “We the People” and not to the corporate and financial sectors. Bernie brings the kind of leadership that is necessary to building a real, living democracy.

The initiators of this letter are veteran grassroots organizers of Occupy Wall Street, and are joined by many energized brothers and sisters we have met along the way. In September 2011, our efforts changed the narrative of American politics, helping to focus it on the issues of our time: inequality, surrender to the power of concentrated wealth, the corruption of our democracy by moneyed interests, and the need for solutions as radical as our problems.

We are signing as individuals hoping to kickstart a small ‘d’ democratic movement. People For Bernie won’t be a corporate-style, staff-driven, controlled-message, top-down enterprise. It will reflect diverse constituencies from a broad range of movements, which in many cases haven’t seen the Democratic Party as a home for their deepest aspirations. It will reflect our commitment to fundamental change, not just a change of faces at the top of the political pyramid. People for Bernie it will reflect the urgency of more and fiercer grassroots political activity at the base.

We call on all other progressive forces to unite behind Sanders so we can have a united front in this important campaign.

Moumita Ahmed
Phillip Anderson - The Albany Project
Betsy Avila - Young Democratic Socialists
Kazembe Balagun - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Brett Banditelli - Occupy Harrisburg
Beth Becker - Occupy DC / McPherson
Nadine Bloch - Nonviolence International,(Ruckus Society)
Joe Brusky - Overpass Light Brigade
Melissa Byrne - Occupy DC-Mcpherson, Project Springboard
Isham Christie - OWS
Heidi Chua - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Mary Clinton - OWS
Damien Crisp - OWS, Occupy Sandy, @OccupyWallStNYC
Kelli Daley - OWS, @occupywallstnyc
Ethan Earle - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Shana East - Meme Against the Machine, Chuy Garcia Campaign
Rick Echevarria - Changer
Michelle Esi - OWS Labor
Caleb-Michael Files - Sankofa
Kim Fraczek - The Peoples Puppets of Occupy Wall Street
Amber Frost - Journalist
Gan Golan - MayDay Space, Movement Net Lab
Priscilla Grim - OWS Media Cleric, occupywallst.nyc
Lane Hall - Overpass Light Brigade
Gabriel Johnson
Aly Johnson-Kurts - Former staff, Teachout-Wu campaign
Howie Klein - Publisher, DownwithTyranny.com
Charles Lenchner - OWS Tech Ops, co-founder, RFW
Joe Libertelli - Co-Founder, Progressive Democrats of America
Angela Linneman
Lisa Moline - Overpass Light Brigade
Justin Molito - Ready for Bernie
Larry Moskowitz - Left Labor Project
Jesse Myerson - Occupy The Ballots
Ed Ott - Faculty, Murphy Institute/CUNY
Annabel Park - Filmmaker and founder of the Coffee Party
Mark Provost - Us Uncut
Jeff Rae - OWS, Ready for Bernie
Paul Russell - Occupy Faith, Judson Church
Audrey Sasson - OWS, 99 Pickets
Daniel Sieradski - Occupy Judaism
Andrew Smith - Rockaway Wildfire, OWS
Zak Solomon - MayDay Space, Rising Tide NYC
Nadya Stevens
Bhaskar Sunkara - Jacobin Magazine
Maria Svart - Democratic Socialists of America
Diane Sweet - Blogger, OWS, Occupy the Boardroom, Environmentalist
Robel Tekleab - OWS
David Unger - Labor Organizer/Educator
Harry Waisbren - Occupy Network
Stan Williams - OWS
Winnie Wong - OWS, @OccupyWallStreetNYC, Ready for Warren, Artists for Warren
Ethan Young - Left Labor Project, Portside.org

I'm kind of excited about this. While the Sanders campaign bigger lift will be to get primary voters in the middle to vote for him (and not HRC), the left shouldn't be ignored. This list includes many who under normal circumstances wouldn't be standing up for any candidate in a Democratic primary, either because they prefer a 3rd party or because they don't think this kind of electoral activity is useful in the long term.

But Bernie Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, makes things different.

Another item of interest has to do with trends in the global left. In Greece, a multi-tendency political party of the left (Syriza) has actually won power with an anti-austerity platform. In Spain, a party barely one year old (Podemos) is now more popular than any other. In both cases, the parties rapid growth is connected to the mass protest movements that began in 2011 - the same year as Occupy Wall St.

You can join People for Bernie here: www.peopleforbernie.com

Can Bernie Sanders be the umbrella under which American left movements can finally come together and build independent electoral power? Time will tell. But this is a good start.

The author is a founder of People for Bernie

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Who's the more 'serious' presidential candidate: Rand Paul or Bernie Sanders?

Sanders tells Stephanopoulos: America needs a 'Political Revolution' for Working Families

We Are People for Bernie