Bernie Sanders has been one of the most embattled figures in politics in recent American history. Everywhere he goes, supporters have been urging him to run for President in 2020, and while he has not made a final decision yet, it is clear that he is no longer the underdog he was 3 years ago. “This time he starts off as a front-runner, or as one of the front-runners” were the words of his former campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, and given his proven ability to build a massive movement from small contributions and his ability to rally people, one can barely question that statement.
Let’s look back on this past weekend. The Sanders Institute hosted its first inaugural conference and it featured progressive voices like those of Dr. Cornel West, former NY gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, actors Danny Glover, John Cusack and Susan Sarandon and New York City mayor Bill deBlasio. The conference was meant to be a strategy session for the progressive movement and it featured progressive voices from all walks of life — from Hollywood elites to current congressional members to grassroots activists. If there was one figure in the United States government who can rally a crowd like that, it is Bernie Sanders. If that is not enough, during the first 18 months following Donald Trump’s election, the 77 year old Senator from Vermont had traveled to 28 different states. Many of these states were those that Donald Trump carried in 2016. According to a CNN analysis, he had been visiting almost double the number of red states than blue states. The United States is more polarized than ever and there is no Senator in America right now who has been willing to talk to voters and challenge the pro-Trump narrative as willingly as Bernie Sanders. The first step towards reconciling our differences is not to be centrist in our policies and it is not to compromise on fundamental rights and issues such as healthcare, but it is open dialogue and that is the most Presidential thing a person can do — have a discussion with those who clearly disagree with them and attempt to persuade them. Add that with the fact that Donald Trump has backed out on so many of his campaign promises and one can only find Senator Sanders talking directly to these people and making sure they know they have been conned. How that will fare in a potential bid in 2020, one can only speculate at this point.
During the conference, the likes like of Bernie Sanders and Dr. West said that our democracy is under attack by right-wing populist ideologies that have engulfed much of Europe and the United States, and that the ‘compromising’ and safe policies of neoliberals have failed to protect it. The last time Democrats had control of the House, they failed to accomplish anything meaningful with it and eventually lost years of progress to a Republican-controlled House and Senate. To build on the momentum of 2018, the progressive movement needs to organize and be vigil, and that is what Senator Sanders is doing. Democratic establishments are collapsing because of the failure of neoliberalism to tackle rampant income inequality, climate change, the collapse of our healthcare system and the surge of poverty. Neoliberalism does not see people as people but as consumers and they view the market as the only entity capable of promoting the most good. Inequality is not viewed as inequality, but as a reward of being useful, i.e., those who are rich work hard to get where they are and anyone can be rich if they work hard. This train of thought is dangerous in that it ignores the numerous advantages the rich have had through affordable education and inheritance. Take Donald Trump’s father giving him ‘a small loan of a million dollars’, for instance. How many people may potentially have good ideas but are unable to fund them? If our credit cards are maxed out, neoliberals do not blame the unaffordability of housing or the burden of student loans, but on the $800 iPhone one may have. In the face of all this, right-wing populism, bordering on facism, has been the ideology that seems credible to those who have been affected the most and it has been the only ideology that they trust to fix their problems. Why? Because no better alternative has been proposed to them. Bernie Sanders, talking to voters in Trump states attempts to do exactly that — present new ideas. The importance of that to our democracy right now cannot be overstated.
A lot of Democrats like Senator Cory Booker, or Senator Kamala Harris have adopted Bernie Sanders’ ideas of Medicare For All and a $15-minimum wage and but these are only two issues that face the country, and the world. They have not committed to affordable college education, they do not have radical ideas to combat climate change, an issue that will affect minorities and poor people the most. They do not have policies on affordable housing and on tackling student debt. While their adoption of Medicare for All, something that only Sanders supported in the 2016 Presidential elections, does complicate things, the fact remains that there are a whole host of issues that are of national significance that other Democratic candidates have not been outspoken on. Now is not the time to be debating on and compromising on climate change — the debate and science should have been settled decades ago and we should already have policies in place based on the science, but we don’t. Now is the time to be strong and to be radical in these ideas because cautious and moderate approaches have only isolated voters more, something the right-wing populist movement used.
By those standards, in a crowded Democratic field, Bernie Sanders remains the best hope against the continuing shift to the right of the Republican Party. He has been outspoken and he has been travelling to every corner of the United States, rallying for candidates and talking to voters. He still sells out most rallies he attends. His voice remains the most prominent in the pool of Democratic candidates, and age is just a number that his energy and enthusiasm cannot match. He is still the most popular politician in America and his message resonates with white, working class voters, a demographic the Democrats have struggled against.
RoseAnn DeMoro, director of the National Nurses United, the union that became the biggest labor backer of Sanders in 2016 responded to a question asking her if there had been contact from other presidential hopefuls by simply saying, “There are no other candidates”. That is where we are now.