This is the second time in recent weeks I find myself agreeing with George Will and a June 7 column, “Sanders’ ‘Socialist’ charade.” Bernie Sanders is not a socialist in the older sense, as Will rightly states. He’s a socialist in the sense of Scandinavian social democratic traditions. He is a socialist compared to the troglodytes and fascists who make up a good portion of the Republican Congressional contingent (and the people who sent them there). Does he belong in the Democratic Party? Yes, in fact more so than many current Democrats who’ve sold out their party to corporate interests and have more in common with Reagan than Roosevelt. And that’s why he’s an Independent.

How do his views compare with those of the typical American? They are far more in line with each other than the public is with the typical Republican presidential candidate. Sanders is in fact the true centrist — something that can be said of few of his opponents.

Mainstream media will belittle his candidacy because they know his election would mean a triumph for the ordinary American and a reduction in the unlimited access to the public trough that the corporate owners of our “free speech” and most everything else now enjoy.

William Sterr

Vancouver