When Tarie MacMillan switched on her television in August to watch the first Republican presidential debate, she expected to decide which candidate to support.
But MacMillan, a 65-year-old Florida resident, was disappointed. “I looked at the stage and there was nobody out there who I really liked. It just seemed like a showcase for Trump and his ridiculous comments,” she recalled. “It was laughable, and scary, and a real turning point.”
So she decided to back Bernie Sanders, the self-described “Democratic socialist” challenging Hillary Clinton. MacMillan was a lifelong Republican voter until a few weeks ago when she switched her party affiliation to support the Vermont senator in the primary. It will be the first time she’s ever voted for a Democrat.
That story may sound improbable, but MacMillan isn’t the only longtime conservative supporting Sanders. There are Facebook groups and Reddit forums devoted entirely to Republicans who adore the Vermont senator.
These Republicans for Sanders defy neat categorization. Some are fed up with the status quo in Washington, and believe that Sanders, with his fiery populist message, is the presidential contender most likely to disrupt it. Others have voted Republican for years, but feel alarmed by what they see as the sharp right turn the party has taken.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is far and away the most popular senator among his own constituents, a new Morning Consult poll reveals.
The veteran lawmaker, who is also a Democratic candidate for president, scored an 83 percent approval rating among voters in Vermont.
His 13 percent disapproval rating also ranks as the lowest in the country.
Sanders's closest rival for the top spot among Democrats is fellow Vermonter Sen. Patrick Leahy, who received a commendable 71 percent approval rating with just 22 percent of voters disapproving of his performance.
The only senator with a disapproval rating higher than his approval rating? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is disliked by 52 percent of his constituents.
The International Association of Iron Workers Local 7 is endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
The union represents more than 3,000 workers in New Hampshire and northern New England.
Steve Williams, business agent and industry analyst for the Iron Workers Local 7, said in a statement that his union supports Sanders because he will “put workers and working families first.”
“Whether it’s his support for a $15 minimum wage, his willingness to take on Wall Street or his commitment to getting corporate money out of politics, Bernie’s vision for America is our vision,” Williams said. “We will work hard to help him win New Hampshire, and then go on to ignite the political revolution our country needs.”
The support follows Sanders’s endorsement last week by the State Employees’ Association of New Hampshire, SEIU Local 1984, which represents about 11,500 people in New Hampshire.
Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday questioned GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s memories of Muslims celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“I don’t know where Mr. Trump gets his evidence,” he said, citing Trump’s recollection that thousands of Arab Americans celebrated the World Trade Center’s fall.
“I have not heard any evidence of this happening,” the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said during an interview with CNN.
“What I get concerned about is this growth of Islamophobia in this country, this desire to win votes by scapegoating a group of people, which is not what America is supposed to be about,” Sanders added.
Sanders said he is eager for a clash with Trump during next year’s general election so that he can challenge the billionaire’s claims directly.
“There’s nothing more that I would enjoy than the chance to take on Donald Trump and to expose the many fabrications that he has brought forth,” he said.
"Donald Trump should not be president of the United States,” Sanders later added.
When it comes to politics, Americans are idiots.
Because American voters are political ignoramuses, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders found it necessary to take the stage at Georgetown University last week to explain what socialism, and democratic socialism are. The point being that too many Democratic primary voters plan to cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton, not because they like her or her ideas, but worry that a self-declared socialist (or democratic socialist) won’t be able to beat the Republican nominee in the general election.
Setting aside the rather idiotic idea of voting for a candidate because everyone else is voting for her — what’s the point of holding an election, we might as well turn elected office over to the candidate with an early lead in the polls — I have to wonder whether an electorate that knows nothing about socialism is qualified to vote at all.
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When Sanders calls himself a socialist, he’s drawing upon a tradition of Western European electoral politics in which socialist principles live alongside free-market capitalist ones, rather than a fully fleshed-out transformation of the economy into one in which the workers control the means of production. For Sanders and the hundreds of millions of citizens of the nations of Europe and their post-colonial progeny (Canada, Australia, many African countries), democratic socialism is a system that looks a lot like the United States.
As far as I know, Bernie hasn’t emphasized the quality of public education in his campaign. But something is, no pun intended, radically wrong when so few Americans understand basic political and economic terms — especially when they apply to the political and economic system under which they themselves live.
By global standards, Sanders’ campaign is calling for weak socialist tea. In most European countries, all colleges are free or charge nominal fees. Socialized medicine, in which your doctor is a government employee and there’s no such thing as a big for-profit hospital corporation, is the international norm. Paid leave? Obviously. And most governments recognize the importance of public infrastructure, and not relying on the private sector to provide every job.
There can only be one reason Americans don’t know this stuff: they’re idiots. Their schools made them that way as kids. Media propaganda keeps them stupid as adults.
Bernie Sanders' rally in Atlanta got off to a flying start Monday when hometown rapper Killer Mike took the stage to offer a passionate welcome to the Vermont senator.
"I'm talking about a revolutionary," the hip hop star and activist told supporters. "In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Sen. Bernie Sanders is the right man to lead this country."
Killer Mike, who headlines "Run the Jewels" along with rapper and producer El-P, has backed Sanders for months, first offering the candidate his blessing in late June.
"Make sure that wherever you go, you take the name, the ideas, the philosophies and the ideology of Bernie Sanders and you make sure when you leave they are on fire, because they have 'felt the bern,'" he said on Monday, channeling the campaign catchphrase.
A New Hampshire agency has rejected efforts to keep four presidential candidates off the ballot.
The New Hampshire Ballot Commission upheld New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner’s decision to allow Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on the Democratic primary ballot and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), as well as real estate mogul Donald Trump on the GOP primary ballot. Commission Chairman Bradford Cook said all decisions were unanimous.
The decision on Sanders came in response to a complaint that argued was he was ineligible to run as a Democrat because he was elected and currently serves as an Independent.
Sanders’s campaign praised the decision to allow him on the Democratic ballot.
"The commission's ruling today ensures Bernie's name will be on the New Hampshire ballot, and puts this issue to bed for good,” Sanders’s New Hampshire state director, Julia Barnes, said in a statement.
Cook said that Andy Martin, who filed the Sanders complaint, has already sent an appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, but explained that the commission's decisions can't be appealed.
"From a statutory point of view, our decisions are final and can't be appealed," Cook said.
In less than 24 hours after I posted this video of Killer Mike's endorsement of Bernie Sanders in Atlanta yesterday, it has received nearly 2 million views.
To many of you who have no idea who Killer Mike is, he is your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. While he may not have the household name recognition of Kanye or Jay Z, throughout his career, Killer Mike, born Michael Render, has kept a hardline political edge. In fact, he is pretty much known for his distrust of traditional American leaders of all kinds.
In great part, that's why having a guy like Bernie Sanders win over the endorsement of Killer Mike actually resonates deeply with hip hop heads around the country. Mike is not the type of dude who throws these endorsements out every election year, but it's actually deeper than that. Killer Mike's endorsement of Bernie Sanders was impassioned, well-reasoned, purposeful, and realistic.
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While conventional wisdom may hold that an endorsement from rappers with singles currently in the top 10 would hold more value, I reject that. By in large, folk don't care what Drake or Future think about politics, but Killer Mike has built real credibility in the activism space and his endorsement mattered. Will it move the needle? It's hard to say, but for a lot of people who love hip hop, the full throttle endorsement Mike gave might just loosen the lid on Bernie's jar a little.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced a sweeping set of immigration reform proposals on Tuesday, pledging to make the issue a top priority of his administration if elected president. The ten-page proposal proposes pro-immigrant policies from everything like deportation and detention reform to prison reform to rejecting free trade agreements like NAFTA. The six-point plan also proposes humanitarian goals like reducing border deaths and increasing intake of refugees. In a statement, Sanders said that the announcement came in the context of American Thanksgiving.
“As we gather with our loved ones to give thanks, we should reflect on the fact that not all families will be so lucky,” Sanders said. “Millions of families are torn apart by our broken immigration policies. We cannot forget about the aspiring Americans who continue to live in the shadows.”
Sander’s plan is a hybrid of his existing proposals, such as nationalizing the prison industry, and opponent’s ideas, like Martin O’Malley’s proposal to end three-to-ten year bars on immigrants applying for visas after they have been in the U.S. without legal permission (for more or less than one year, respectively).
Calling their plan the “the strongest in the Democratic field,” the Sanders campaign says that the platform would be even more progressive that Gov. O’Malley’s, whose 7-page proposal released months ago is more detailed and promises more to pro-immigrant voters than Clinton’s public statements (she does not have a detailed immigration proposal).
The Bernie News Roundup is a voluntary, non-campaign associated roundup of news, media, & other information related to Bernie Sanders' run for President.
More information about Bernie & The Issues @ feelthebern.org
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