“I am not now, nor have I ever been, a liberal Democrat.”

Bernie Sanders stressed that self-definition as we sat in his drab mayoral office in Burlington, Vermont, which featured two separate pictures of early 20th century socialist Eugene Debs on the walls. It was the summer of 1985 and I was in Burlington to profile the three-term socialist mayor for New England Monthly.

What struck me at the time, though, was how politically shrewd it was for Sanders to portray himself as just beyond the fringe. In the 1980s, just like today, America was brimming over with earnest liberal Democratic mayors of boutique college towns like Burlington. But being a socialist mayor — that was the Bernie badge of distinction.



Sanders the Socialist was partly the creation of an Associated Press night editor trying to spruce up a 1981 election story on the unlikely victory of an independent mayoral candidate in Burlington. “Are you really a socialist?” the man from the AP asked in a telephone interview. When Sanders said, “yes” without hesitation, the ballad of Bernie was born.

By 1985 — even though vendors were still selling “People’s Republic of Burlington” T-shirts — the local business community had made an uneasy peace with Mayor Sanders. As I wrote at the time, “Seeping through Burlington is a growing suspicion that Bernie Sanders is a bit eccentric but fundamentally no more radical than, say, Gary Hart.”

Because New England Monthly folded in 1990, my Sanders profile was never digitized. Retrieving a microfilmed copy after 30 years was a curious exercise — a time warp trip back to an era when the leading shops along the Church Street pedestrian mall in Burlington were Laura Ashley and Benetton.