Senator Elect Bernie Sanders

Whenever I hear Senator elect Bernie Sanders speak I find he makes a lot of sense and has some great ideas for the issues that affect many Americans. I was glad to see he won by a landslide in Vermont as an independent and will caucus with the Democrats. He will be someone to watch in the Senate. Amy Goodman has a piece on who Bernie Sanders is. (currently he is a Congressman) New Vermont Senator Not Standard Fare by Amy Goodman Bernard Sanders is the new U.S. senator in Vermont. He ran as an independent, but he is the first self-described socialist to be elected to the Senate. In a fitting matchup for a socialist, Sanders' opponent was multimillionaire businessman Republican Rich Tarrant. As Sanders said before the election, "We are running against the richest man in Vermont, who will spend more per capita than anyone in the history of the U.S. Senate." And, as he pointed out, "I don't mind really if millionaires vote against me; they probably should." [snip] How do his socialist policies play with conservative Republican Vermonters? "Truth of the matter is ... conservative Republicans don't have health care, don't have money to send their kids to college; conservative Republicans are being thrown out of their jobs as our good paying jobs move to China. And if you talk about those issues, you know what those people say? 'I want someone to stand up to protect my economic well-being.' Conservative people are very worried about Bush's attacks on our constitutional rights. So the job is to say, 'We're not going to agree on every issue, but don't vote against your own interests.' " After eight years as Burlington's mayor, and 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Sanders is heading to the Senate. Senators have longer terms, more procedural power, a more prominent bully pulpit. Sanders has policy ideas that cross the simple partisan divides, that unite people by impacting them where they live. He thumbs his nose at millionaires, yet is joining the Senate, which has more than 40 of them. With a lame-duck president and nearly evenly split Senate, where coalitions matter and every vote counts, Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont, is poised to make a difference. More at Common Dreams There is also an interview at Democracy NOW