Bernie Sanders, picking up working-class steam

Readers in the Middle East are probably perplexed by the U.S. political year, all the figures, rivalries and sudden upsets -- in this column we introduce Senator Bernard "Bernie" Sanders, the one rival left to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination this summer.

Bernie Sanders is a Democratic candidate for President of the United States, a US Senator for the state of Vermont since 2006, and before that he served 16 years as the state's s sole congressman in the House of Representatives. Sanders is now serving his second term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2012 with 71 percent of the vote.

Sanders is a classic American story, born to a Polish refugee father from wartime Europe and an American mother, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York. He did well for himself educationally, displaying the intellectual smarts he is known for, graduating from James Madison High School, Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago.

After graduating, education aside, he started out working class, moving to Vermont after college, where he worked as carpenter and documentary filmmaker. He had been a strident college activist during the 1960s for a variety of causes that still trouble the U.S. landscape even now, such as racial equality.

His activism and political involvement were something he never left behind, and in 1981, he was elected as mayor of Burlington, the state' second largest city, by a mere 10 vote margin over the longtime Republican officeholder. Sanders had something that captivated the public, which was his progressive ideas. As mayor, Sanders helped transform Burlington politically and economically into a new city. Under his administration, the city made strides in affordable housing, taxation, environmental protection, child care, women's rights, youth programs and the arts.

His official campaign biography notes that "in Congress, Sanders fought tirelessly for working families, focusing on the shrinking middle class and growing gap between the rich and everyone else."

Sanders serves in Washington as one of Vermont's two senators and lives in Burlington with his wife Jane. He has four children and seven grandchildren.

Now to the key part of the story, in spring of 2015 he declared himself running for the Democratic nomination, slightly changing Clinton's game plan to be the party's anointed sole party standard bearer.

Notably, Sanders has nationally spurred a strong grass-roots group of ardent campaign volunteers, which includes many young Americans.

Anne Moore, a teenage volunteer who is a senior in high school, said "I support Sanders because he gives me hope for the future ...I can't speak for my whole generation, but I think it comes down to trust... Bernie genuinely cares about us, he is telling us things that no other politician has quite been able to."

She added, "(American) millennials (teens and 20-somethings) are big dreamers, we grew up being taught the world was full of opportunity that anything is possible if we set our mind to it, he is the candidate that best fits this attitude."

While Clinton has been leading in the race, Sanders has proved himself politically credible winning some key states, most recently and perhaps importantly, working-class Michigan, where polls predicted he would lose by a wide percentage. Sanders has new steam now, to continue his fight with some key industrial, working-class states in the race immediately ahead.

The victory raised fresh questions about the Clinton, a former Senator and US Secretary State, (and the spouse of former US president Bill Clinton) appeal to blue-collar Democrats "who have embraced the Vermont's senator's populist anti-Wall Street message," according to CNN reporting.

"..his performance in Michigan suggests Sanders could mount a stronger-than-expected challenge in looming primaries in a string of Rust Belt states (declining industrial states), including Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin."

Clinton now has 1,234 of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination. That figure includes superdelegates, party officials and officeholders who have said they will back her.

Sanders has 567 delegates overall. A tough margin to overcome, but Sanders is putting up a political fight that will distract Clinton for months to come, taking her attention for turning on Republican likely nominee Donald Trump, and starting the battle on that front.

Sanders has commented acidly about Trump, saying during a recent televised debate in Miami: "I think the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, (and) who insults women."

Some of Sanders key positions are as follows, particularly regarding the Middle East:

Sanders strongly opposed what evolved into the 2003 invasion of Iraq and said in his comments at the time, "I am opposed to giving the president (then George W. Bush) a blank check to launch a unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq" adding, "I will vote against this (use of force) resolution....As a caring nation, we should do everything we can to prevent the horrible suffering that a war will cause. War must be the last recourse in international relations, not the first. Second, I am deeply concerned about the precedent that a unilateral invasion of Iraq could establish in terms of international law and the role of the United Nations."

He warned at the time that an invasion would "result in anti-Americanism, instability and more terrorism."

Moving forward, Sanders has recently called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (and the Levant) (ISIS) "a barbaric organization" and "a growing threat, " but said that he does not believe that the U.S. should lead the fight against it. Sanders has said that "the United States should be supportive, along with other countries, but we cannot and we should not be involved in perpetual warfare in the Middle East—the Muslim countries themselves must lead the effort."

He thus straddled the fence, tacitly approving allied bombing but not ground troops, which is strongly opposed by the majority of Americans after more than a decade of the unsuccessful occupation of Iraq.

Sanders defends Israel's use of force, including the Gaza war, calling it the right of self-defense, but also is a strong backer of a dual-state solution, the Palestinians rights to a territory, and their fundamental right to a separate identity.

Ultimately he has added that the Israeli military operation in Gaza was disproportionate to the threat.

On the American front, he in many ways represents classic Democratic liberalism, proposing large government programs assisting the working class, giving subsidized education to Americans, increasing taxes on the wealthy, raising the minimum wage to $15-an-hour, and currently most popular, attacking Wall Street and big bank monopoly on the American economy.

His message finds a mixed reception among Democratic voters, but resonates strongly with blue-collar, working-class Americans, with the proposal to dismantle free trade agreements that hit the US manufacturing sector hard.

"What these trade agreements have done is decimate community after community in the Midwest and all over America," Sanders said during the Michigan battle. "I have helped lead the opposition to every one of these disastrous trade agreements...because I knew what they would do."

This promise galvanizes manufacturing sector voters.
Source: Al-Nahar