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So, Bernie is an avowed Socialist/Independent and not a democrat. Then why is he allowed to run on the democratic ticket? Any explanations, cuz I just don't get it.
PolitiFact - How Bernie Sanders runs in the Democratic primary when he’s an independent in the Senate
Sanders' partisan history
As we noted when he ran in 2016, Sanders was the nominee of the anti-capitalist, anti-war Liberty Union Party of Vermont in two Senate and two gubernatorial elections in Vermont between 1972 and 1976. He lost all four races and resigned from the party in 1977, calling it "sad and tragic," according to Greg Guma, author of The People's Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution.
In 1981, Sanders made an independent bid for mayor of Burlington as a self-described socialist. He won by 10 votes over the city's Democratic mayor and two other independents, and went on to win three more terms.
Democrats and leftists disagree on where Sanders' political allegiances were during this decade.
Liberty Union Party co-founder Peter Diamondstone doesn't buy Sanders' claims to independence. He told the Daily Caller that Sanders "became a full-time Democrat" in 1984, when he campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale.
Yet Sanders continued to clash with the party locally, and his "goal was to destroy Democrats," Maurice Mahoney, the head of Burlington's Democratic Party in the 1980s, told Politico. He also mounted independent challenges against Democrats, including Vermont's first female Democratic governor in 1984, and reiterated that he had no party affiliation.
"I am not now, nor have I ever been, a liberal Democrat," he said in a 1985 New England Monthly profile, according to Politico. (my bolding)
"Socialist is the political and economic philosophy I hold, not a party I run under," he explained in 1988, when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress.
Also.....
Indeed, Sanders has emphasized his outsider status at least as much, if not more than, his Democratic Party credentials during the primary contest. For instance, after his victory in the Nevada caucuses, Sanders tweeted, "I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us."
Moderators please feel free to combine this thread with any others if this topic has already been explored.
PolitiFact - How Bernie Sanders runs in the Democratic primary when he’s an independent in the Senate
Sanders' partisan history
As we noted when he ran in 2016, Sanders was the nominee of the anti-capitalist, anti-war Liberty Union Party of Vermont in two Senate and two gubernatorial elections in Vermont between 1972 and 1976. He lost all four races and resigned from the party in 1977, calling it "sad and tragic," according to Greg Guma, author of The People's Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution.
In 1981, Sanders made an independent bid for mayor of Burlington as a self-described socialist. He won by 10 votes over the city's Democratic mayor and two other independents, and went on to win three more terms.
Democrats and leftists disagree on where Sanders' political allegiances were during this decade.
Liberty Union Party co-founder Peter Diamondstone doesn't buy Sanders' claims to independence. He told the Daily Caller that Sanders "became a full-time Democrat" in 1984, when he campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale.
Yet Sanders continued to clash with the party locally, and his "goal was to destroy Democrats," Maurice Mahoney, the head of Burlington's Democratic Party in the 1980s, told Politico. He also mounted independent challenges against Democrats, including Vermont's first female Democratic governor in 1984, and reiterated that he had no party affiliation.
"I am not now, nor have I ever been, a liberal Democrat," he said in a 1985 New England Monthly profile, according to Politico. (my bolding)
"Socialist is the political and economic philosophy I hold, not a party I run under," he explained in 1988, when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress.
Also.....
Indeed, Sanders has emphasized his outsider status at least as much, if not more than, his Democratic Party credentials during the primary contest. For instance, after his victory in the Nevada caucuses, Sanders tweeted, "I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us."
Moderators please feel free to combine this thread with any others if this topic has already been explored.
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