Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders is running against a four term Republican

[Ichingcarpenter]

YET HE HASN'T HAD ONE TV ADD DONE IN VERMONT.


HOW DOES HE DO IT?

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had run no attack ads. In fact, he hadn’t run any TV commercials. He was still speaking in full sentences, not soundbites; still inviting voters to ask complicated questions on controversial issues—and still answering with big, bold proposals to address climate change, really reform healthcare with a single-payer “Medicare for All” program, steer money away from the Pentagon and toward domestic jobs initiatives, and counter the threat of plutocracy posed by Citizens United by amending the Constitution. Rejecting the empty partisanship of the pre-election frenzy, Sanders was ripping the austerity agenda of Romney and Paul Ryan, while warning that Obama and too many Democrats were inclining toward an austerity-lite “grand bargain” that would make debt reduction a greater priority than saving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.




nd Sanders was winning—big. A poll conducted by the Democratic Party of Vermont had the independent senator with a 69–21 lead over his rival, Republican John MacGovern, a businessman and four-term Massachusetts state legislator who promised to replace “the only admitted socialist in the US Senate.” Sanders was ahead among women and men, across income and education categories, and in every region. “I go crazy with all these Democrats saying you have to go conservative to win, you have to go cautious to win. These damned consultants come in and say, ‘This is how you have to run,’ and it’s always the same: raise money, spend it on television, don’t say anything that will offend anyone. And the Democrats do it and then they end up in tight races, worried about whether they’ll make it,” says Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats but rarely takes advice from anyone in Washington. “For the life of me, I can’t figure out why progressives listen to consultants. Building movements, making progress on progressive issues— you have to talk to people, educate people, organize people.”

So Sanders took the money he raised for his re-election campaign and put it into an energetic door-knocking project that began long before other candidates were running TV ads. The point wasn’t to build name recognition; through forty years of losing and then winning elections, Sanders has been to virtually every town in the state. At the roughly 20,000 doors knocked on by the legions of Sanders volunteers during this campaign, the “ask” was for a lot more than votes. Vermonters were urged to come out and spend a few hours—yes, a few hours—with Sanders at their town halls. “We’ve organized meetings in towns of 300, and more than 100 people show up. They stay into the evening, talking about saving post offices and getting people dental care and bringing troops home from Afghanistan.”


http://www.thenation.com/article/170922/how-does-bernie-sanders-do-it

[ananda]

1. But Vermont is sane!

..

[bootat9]

11. my favorite senator...

2nd.. sherrod brown, 3rd.. tom harkin.

[sadbear]

2. The citizens of Vermont have their act together.

I wish I lived there instead of Texas.

[Z_California]

3. Vermont

I was thinking Canada if Romney steals this one, but Vermont. Hmmm.

[adigal]

23. Vermonters might be t hinking of Canada too!

Bringing Canada to them, I mean, as in govt!

[limpyhobbler]

4. Opponents calling him a socialist doesn't hurt him at all because he just says "yep that's right".

[cui bono]

5. Sanders is the best. He spends an hour on Thom Hartmann's radio show every Friday

and takes questions from callers, not predetermined questions either. He doesn't know what he will be asked. He's a real man of the people.

[lexw]

25. Yes. I used to love listening to him on Tom H. during my 40 mile drive to work.

[Ikonoklast]

6. I had the honor of talking to Sen. Sanders breifly about the health care bill before it passed.

So glad he was on board.

[n2doc]

7. The. Best. Senator.

No one comes close now.

[Melissa G]

8. +1000

[hootinholler]

13. I think Franken is probably closest

I agree that Bernie is the best.

[PowerToThePeople]

27. ^this

[hifiguy]

9. Vermont is small and Bernie's style is perfect for retail

politics rather than the mass/wholesale politics of very populous places like Florida, California or Texas. In such a place the playing field is level. He can be accessible, open and available to the entire populace of the state. Anyone who wants to see him and talk to him can do so by driving a few miles. He is the real deal and people know that when the meet him or hear him speak up close.

Man, I wish we had about 40 more Bernies in the Senate. He is the greatest!

[coalition_unwilling]

10. I've said for many months now that the real debate in this country should be between

Obama and Sanders, with Romney and his fascist cohort being little more than a rump movement.

Imagine a national political discourse dominated by debate between center and left.

[FredStembottom]

14. +1000

Take away the labels and Bernie's positions are massively popular.
Maybe he is now showing that the demonized labels don't even matter.

[mstinamotorcity2]

12. The Senator has

a record. One that the people of Vermont and the country knows. And we have seen the other side and its not a popular choice

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. But..but..he's running as a (gasp!) 3rd Party candidate!

[Vidar]

16. Bernie is, by far, the best Senator.

[bullwinkle428]

17. It will be an INCREDIBLY sad day for this nation when he finally decides to hang it up.

K&R.

[cali]

30. not really. Vermont has an incredible "farm" team of progressives

in the Vermont House and Senate. I love Bernie. He's my Senator but there are some amazing people in the state house.

[flamingdem]

18. His radio show is the reason + flatlanders who are liberals

and long term residents who know what he has accomplished. Hurricane Irene is an example, his efforts were stellar

[HopeHoops]

19. I don't how talented one fancies oneself, running against Sanders would scare the CRAP out of ME!!

[Auntie Bush]

21. Running against Sanders is pure stupidy. Why would anyone vote for that stupid person?

Bernie is the absolute greatest and we're so lucky to have him as our senator...also Leahy!
What more could anyone want?

[dsc]

20. His opponent is some dude who raised a total of 24k

and spent 20k. He got no help from outside groups. http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/John_MacGovern (this is as of July)
He is also running in what is Obama's best state. Obama is up 36.5 there according to an average of polls. In short, Sanders is not doing as well as Obama is.

Contrast that with two other candidates. Sherrod Brown is running against a man who has been elected state wide. He has had just short of 15 million spent against him vs 2 million for. He is running in a state where Obama is at 2.4% win in the polls. Brown is at plus 5.8%. He is out performing Obama.

In Hawaii we have an open seat. She is at 19.4% plus which is behind Obama but she has never run statewide and is running against a former governor. She was outspent 5 to 1 in terms of outside spending. 100k vs 500k.

In short, I will take Brown as the person we might want to emulate in terms of campaigning. Liberal outspent in swing state winning.

[Catch2.2]

22. Bernie Sanders is the Best!

I wish there were more politicians like him!

[lyingsackofmitt]

24. Yes he is! We need 99 more Bernies!

[Egalitarian Thug]

36. 435. n/t

[ProudProgressiveNow]

26. The MAN speaks the truth.

He is an incredible Senator.

[hfojvt]

28. he's running in Vermont against a guy who served four terms in Massachusetts?

Uhm, his opponent does not even have a political base - not in Vermont.

Not a surprse that he is winning. He's basically running unopposed, just like Republicans often do in Kansas and South Dakota.

[Scuba]

29. Of the 40% of us who don't vote at all, I'll venture 80% would embrace Bernie's policies.

It pains me that "serious Democrats" move toward the false-facade that is the right, thereby conceding to the voters that "the other side has all the good ideas".

Proposing Medicare for All and raising the national minimum wage would gain a lot more votes than it would lose.

[cali]

31. I love Bernie. He's my Senator. But this is bullshit:

"Sanders bristles when pundits who don’t know Vermont dismiss his approach to campaigning as a regional deviation that might work in what is often portrayed as a quirky liberal state that couldn’t possibly have relevance for the rest of the country. “It wasn’t that long ago that Vermont was one of the most Republican states in the country. Until two years ago, the governor was a Republican; the lieutenant governor is a Republican. This is a significantly rural state. This is a state with some very conservative regions.” Polls had Sanders leading by wide margins even in areas where Democrats run poorly. Why? Because the senator does not waste money on TV commercials designed to scare or fool voters into backing him. Rather, he goes where voters live. Personal Democracy Media co-founder and editorial director Micah Sifry, who has followed Sanders and Vermont politics for years, recalls: “Visiting hunting lodges to talk about protecting natural resources for hunting and fishing and establishing a connection with [hunters] was one of the ways that Sanders managed to earn the trust of the predominantly conservative and working-class Northeast Kingdom section of Vermont, which regularly gives Sanders, a self-declared socialist, its hearty support.”

C'mon, Bernie. First of all, even when Vermont was repub, it had liberal Senators for the most part. Prouty, Aiken, Jeffords. Bernie knows this. Secondly, to compare VT conservatives with Kansas or Oklahoma or other conservative state conservatives, is absurd. Ponder this: In 2008, every single county in VT went for Obama. That's right, every one. And Douglas was hardly a wingnut. He was a pro-choice moderate- and he did a lot of what Bernie does; he showed up everywhere in the state. And where do Democrats run poorly in this state? We have a supermajority in the VT House and Senate.

[dsc]

32. the upper kingdom or whatever that place is called

I remember the author of Civil Wars talking about it in his book.

[cali]

33. It's the Northeast Kingdom

and all three counties that comprise it, Orleans, Caledonia and Essex, went for Obama in 2008. You just can't compare the Kingdom with the Oklahoma Panhandle.

[RoccoR5955]

34. BEST.SENATOR.EVER!

Bernie knows how to run things to get elected. He sets up town halls and meets with folks and talks to them.
This is EXACTLY the same thing that my soon to be late Congressman, Maurice Hinchey has done for almost 30 years, and even though he has differing values than a lot of the conservatives around here, he always would get their vote.
This should be a lesson to folks running for office. You have to get out, and speak to folks, and have a sit down with them at these town halls, and get them to listen and learn.
I only wish that Hinchey wasn't retiring.

[Egalitarian Thug]

35. This is what scares the crap out of all of those that advocate for and work

"within the system". Once people experience, first hand, the benefits of socialism, ultra-liberalism, whatever label you want to place on it, they realize the benefits of it. The Democrats lost the south, not because they were liberal, they're not, but because of flat-out racism, period. There has never been an example of a too liberal that has later been rejected by the people.

Nobody cares if the rich are prevented from becoming ultra-rich because of the expense required for everybody else to live a decent life free of the threats of deprivation, and the ultra-rich are never anything beyond an infinitesimal minority. So, the only way the ultra-rich gain and hold power is through force and fear of the "dire consequences" they threaten impose if their power is taken away from them.

Senator Sanders caucuses with the Democrats because they are the least offensive of the two choices allowed. He is also a smart politician, and so goes along with the bad ideas and flawed plans they put forth when they are inevitable, but his core values are what will always win out whenever they are able to get through the dual blockade of the established money parties.