The contrasts between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are largely differences of degree. He's a self-proclaimed socialist; she fashions herself a "progressive that likes to get things done." He hopes to bust up the biggest banks and offer free tuition at public colleges and universities; she wants to tamp down on risky Wall Street behavior and require students to work part-time in order to attend college without building up debt.
But these discrepancies would likely disappear if either Democratic candidate wins the presidency and attempts to push these bills through a Republican Congress that considers all of the proposals too far left for its liking.
The real difference between Sanders and Clinton might come down less to the what of their policies than to the how of implementing them. When Sanders unveils a new policy as part of his presidential campaign, he tends to pair it with legislation he introduces in the Senate. Judging from his campaign, a President Sanders would spend much of his time trying to convince Congress to pass massive legislative overhauls.
Clinton, on the other hand, often pair ideas for legislation with promises of executive action in her policy fact sheets. When she rolls out a new policy proposal, the most details are usually in descriptions of the unilateral actions she would take through the power of the executive branch.
Take the two campaigns' recent approaches to reforming marijuana laws. Sanders introduced a bill in the Senate that would end the federal prohibition on the drug (which, like other far-reaching bills he's introduced alongside campaign pledges, has not yet received even a committee vote). Clinton's approach isn't more modest just in substance, but also in approach
The second debate will test Sanders yet again -- not as a first-timer on the big stage, but for his ability to handle incoming fire.
It is a near certainty that Sanders will take incoming fire from both Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has recently added Sanders knocks to his stump speech.
At a Democratic forum earlier this month, O'Malley said Sanders needs to answer for saying that a liberal Democrat should challenge President Barack Obama in 2012. That is certain to come up again and while Sanders' aides said he is preparing for the attack line, they wouldn't detail how he plans to rebuff the struggling former governor.
"Wait and see," Weaver said. "I encourage you to watch the debate."
Cafeteria workers employed in the U.S. Senate have spent the last several months agitating for higher wages and union representation, taking part in strikes and protests to highlight their demands. Now a group of senators have joined their cause.
In a letter sent Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 33 Democrats asked that Compass Group, the company that provides food services in the Capitol, voluntarily recognize a union for the workers if a majority of them ask for one. What the senators appear to be calling for is commonly known as "card check" -- an arrangement that allows workers to avoid a secret-ballot union election, as well as any attendant pressure from management to vote against the union.
"Employees working full time in the U.S. Senate should not be living in poverty," the letter says. "Yet with the cost of living in the Washington metropolitan area among the highest in the United States, there have been numerous reports of Senate cafeteria workers forced to take a second job, rely on public assistance programs, and in at least one instance, into homelessness."
The lawmakers accused the company of having "resisted" the workers' desire to unionize, noting charges of unfair labor practices that have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
"The time has come for the Compass Group to ensure Senate cafeteria workers have a model employer that addresses its workers’ legitimate concerns," the letter continues.
Eric Lee, a member of Democrats Abroad in London since 2008, has started a group supporting Bernie Sanders, complete with a Facebook page, Meet-up group and a mailing list. The group is set to meet with Sanders’ brother Larry sanders, who lives in London, on 17 November.
As with a number of Sander’s events in the US, the interest in the event was larger than expected and the group had to find a larger venue for the upcoming gathering.
“I’m a democratic socialist and grew up in the same political tradition that Bernie represents today. He’s made the entire focus of his campaign to stand up to the billionaire class, as he calls it, and to fight for greater equality and social justice. No other candidate comes close on those issues,” said Lee.
Lee’s efforts have already born fruit. Diana Lozano, 33, lives in London and has joined the group after finding it online.
“I looked for a London based Bernie group on Meet-up,” she said. “It’s a bit harder to be involved in politics here. You need to more diligent in keeping up with the latest, but the internet make that pretty painless.”
There’s always interest in American elections in London, according to Lee, but Sanders has not been covered much by the global media, making Clinton appear as the inevitable candidate.
ernie Sanders lags far behind Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination for president, but he still has pockets of support he’ll need to build on in coming weeks, a new McClatchy-Marist Poll shows.
Voters ages 18-29 prefer the Vermont senator over the former secretary of state by 58 percent to 35 percent. Democratic-leaning independents prefer him over her, 50 percent to 38 percent.
Sanders, an independent running for the Democratic nomination, also does well with white voters, those who live in the West and the most liberal members of the party.
“A lot of people my age usually don’t have a candidate, but a lot of us like Bernie,” said Democrat Amur El Bey, 19, a student in Charlotte, N.C. “He seems like one of the few honest politicians up there who isn’t crazy.”
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“Hillary Clinton has the experience in government, but right now we’re in a climate that doesn’t trust the government,” said Denise Miller, 48, an entrepreneur from Quilcene, Wash. “I believe that Bernie Sanders would not fall short on his campaign promises. His life is more in alignment with the people.”
In a test of the ability to win, the poll indicates both Clinton and Sanders would defeat the leading Republican candidates, including Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina.
He could be our next president of the U.S., he believes what the majority of Americans believe, and it goes without saying that he has better hair than Trump. So far, Bernie Sanders has shown multiple times in the presidential race that he stands apart from the other candidates.
Unlike other presidential candidates, Sanders is running self-funded. Meaning, he does not pursue funding from any major super PACS, (i.e. independent expenditure-only committees who may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associates and individuals, then spend unlimited sums to overtly advocate for or against political candidates).
Instead, Sanders chooses to receive most of his campaign funds from small, individual donations from American citizens. Sanders is known in his campaign as the democratic candidate who is the most outspoken when it comes to his beliefs about political activism and protests.
While in college, Bernie protested against police brutality, worked as an organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality, and is the only presidential hopeful who has — yes — been handcuffed. Bernie was arrested while being involved in a civil rights demonstration when he was young.
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According to Thomas Dowling, journalist for University of Illinois college section of USA Today, Sanders is most popular among millennials.
“Millennials will be looking at four major policy areas come 2016: independence from the Washington establishment, support for climate change mitigation policies, job creation and student debt reform. The candidate siding on the right side of all of these issues will very likely win the millennial vote. That candidate appears to be Bernie Sanders,” Dowling wrote.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is out with a new television ad for his presidential campaign.
The 30-second spot, entitled “Rigged Economy,” will begin airing in Iowa and New Hampshire tomorrow, his campaign said. Like his first television ad, it features clips of Mr. Sanders’ stadium rallies and attempts to introduce him to voters who are unfamiliar with the self-identified democratic socialist.
“People are sick and tired of establishment politics and they want real change,” Mr. Sanders says in the ad.
A narrator follows: “Husband. Father. Grandfather. He’s taking on Wall Street and a corrupt political system that keeps in place a rigged economy. Bernie’s campaign is funded by over a million contributions— people like you who see the middle class disappearing and want a future to believe in.”
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