Sarah Lyall at the NY Time with an already much talked about piece:

Bernie Sanders's Revolutionary Roots



When he came to Vermont in the late 1960s to help plan the upending of the old social order, the future presidential candidate Bernie Sanders brought with him the belief that the United States was starkly divided into two groups: the establishment and the revolutionaries. He was a revolutionary. “The Revolution Is Life Versus Death,” in fact, was the title of an article he wrote for The Vermont Freeman, an alternative, authority-challenging newspaper published for a few years back then. The piece began with an apocalyptically alarmist account of the unbearable horror of having an office job in New York City, of being among “the mass of hot dazed humanity heading uptown for the 9-5,” sentenced to endless days of “moron work, monotonous work.” “The years come and go,” Mr. Sanders wrote, in all apparent seriousness. “Suicide, nervous breakdown, cancer, sexual deadness, heart attack, alcoholism, senility at 50. Slow death, fast death. DEATH. .. In “Reflections on a Dying Society,” he declared that the United States was virtually going to hell in a handcart. Its food was laden with chemicals; its environment was being ruined; the threat of nuclear annihilation or “death by poison gas” was increasing; people were suffering from malaise and “psychosomatic disease”; citizens were being coerced and duped by the government and the advertising industry; and the economy was based on “useless” goods “designed to break down or used for the slaughter of people.” “The general social situation, to say the least,” he wrote, “does not look good.”

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Sophia Tesfaye writing at Salon with:

The Real Reasons Bernie Sanders Is Transforming The Election

CNN dubbed this “the summer of Sanders” as media outlets finally picked up on the large crowds Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has attracted during campaign stops. His rocketing poll numbers in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire led to countless stories heralding a Sanders surge — but the story is as much about the issues as it is about the man. Even Republican candidates have taken notice of Sanders’ rise. Ahead of a recent stop in Madison, Wisconsin, likely 2016 contender and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker welcomed Sanders to the state with a series of tweets attacking the democratic socialist once dismissed as too fringe. Walker may not have taken too fondly to Sanders attracting a record 10,000 people in his home state. But Sanders’ campaign, surely more so than that of any of the Republican candidates, seems to be gaining traction more for the ideas he espouses than because of a cult of personality. Granted, many supporters have pointed to Sanders’ straightforward manner and willingness to call out bad actors as refreshingly appealing, but unlike with Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Chris Christie, it isn’t just a brash style that’s being sold. Sanders makes a direct effort to address many of the issues that have arisen since the Hope & Change campaign of 2008 and it appears as though he is tapping into very real and long-simmering sentiments in the Democratic base. More than a protest vote against Hillary Clinton, as some have suggested, Sanders’ support appears to be support for issues Clinton’s yet to fully address. Here are some of the ways that Sanders is gaining support by leading on issues or movements that other candidates ignore:

The Guardian's lets the world know The Grassroots Movement Is Working



What began as a progressive pipe dream – that a rabble-rousing senator from the nation’s second least populous state could wrest the Democratic presidential nomination from one of the most well-known politicians in recent history – is starting to seem plausible. By way of massive rallies, grassroots politicking and a record-setting number small donations, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is winning over progressive voters, convincing them that his underdog campaign has a fighting chance against Hillary Clinton’s well-oiled – and extraordinarily well-funded – political machine. On Thursday, the Sanders campaign announced it raised $15m since 30 April from 250,000 donors, many of whom have made small contributions online. In contrast, Barack Obama attracted only 180,000 donors during the first quarter of his presidential campaign in 2007, which has been considered the benchmark for online fundraising by an insurgent candidate in modern presidential politics.

Appearing late last week on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri insisted that Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont “is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to become president.” Indeed, responding to the fact that candidate Sanders is not only drawing big, enthusiastic crowds to campaign events in Iowa and New Hampshire, but also pulling within 10 points of frontrunner and party favorite Hillary Clinton in certain state polls, McCaskill said: “It’s not unusual for someone who has an extreme message to have a following.” Extreme? McCaskill’s remarks indicate that we may be in more trouble than we thought. For some time we have feared that Republican politicians were losing their minds. Now it seems we must worry, as well, that Democratic politicians are losing their memories. .. Well, think again. Social democracy is 100 percent American. We may be latecomers to recognizing a universal right to health care (indeed, we are not quite there yet). But we were first in creating a universal right to public education, in endowing ourselves with ownership of national parks, and, for that matter, in conferring voting rights on males without property and abolishing religious tests for holding national office. .. Bernie Sanders may never appear at Four Freedoms Park. But he sounds like FDR, not simply because you can practically hear him saying of the one percent what FDR did — “I welcome their hatred” — but all the more because of what he wants to do: tax the rich, create a single-payer national health care system, make public higher education free to all qualified students, create jobs by refurbishing the nation’s public infrastructure, and address the environment and climate change. But even more critically, like FDR he doesn’t say he wants to fight for us. He seeks to encourage the fight in us

The biggest obstacle to Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic presidential nomination is a rumpled, white-haired grandfather who doesn't even call himself a member of the Democratic party.

Related News/Archive Sen. Bernie Sanders has no entourage or bevy of political advisers. He represents a state with half the population of Hillsborough County, and he has long been viewed by the national media as a quaint, fringie — a self-described democratic socialist, of all things! — from the People's Republic of Vermont. But contrary to conventional wisdom about the Democratic presidential contest, people are listening to presidential candidate Sanders. A lot of people.

"When millions of people stand up and fight, they win." -Bernie Sanders http://t.co/... pic.twitter.com/yaI5PRTIcN — iLoveStatz (@ilovestatz) July 4, 2015

Harvey Kaye writes that Social Democracy Is 100% American

Peter Grier with the Christian Science Monitor on Bernie's big haul:

Bernie Sanders raises $15 million. Chump change or a lot?



According to his campaign, Bernie Sanders has received contributions from some 250,000 individuals. Ninety-nine percent of the donations were for $250 or less.

By Peter Grier, Staff writer July 3, 2015

Save for later Bernie Sanders has raised $15 million since joining the presidential race in April. Is that a lot, relatively speaking? Yes, it’s a pretty good haul. Look at it this way: That’s fairly close to the $18 million that moneybags Mitt Romney raised for his general account in the first three months of his declared presidential run in the 2012 election cycle. Plus, Senator Sanders did it the hard way, via small donors. According to his campaign, Sanders received contributions from some 250,000 individuals. Ninety-nine percent of the donations were for $250 or less. (By way of contrast, the federal limit for campaign giving is $2,700 per person, per primary or general election.) .. The upshot of Sanders’s take is that it shows that his polls and his crowds aren’t the only indicators he’s making some progress in his campaign. He’s got enough money and enough of a donor base to maintain at least a subsistence-level campaign for as long as he wants.

The AFL-CIO is trying to quell a Pro-Sanders Revolt:



Richard Trumka has a message for state and local AFL-CIO leaders tempted to endorse Bernie Sanders: Don’t. In a memo this week to state, central and area divisions of the labor federation, and obtained by POLITICO, the AFL-CIO chief reminded the groups that its bylaws don’t permit them to “endorse a presidential candidate” or “introduce, consider, debate, or pass resolutions or statements that indicate a preference for one candidate over another.” Even “‘personal’ statements” of candidate preference are verboten, Trumka said. The memo comes amid signs of a growing split between national union leaders — mindful of the fact that Clinton remains the undisputed favorite for the nomination — and local officials and rank and file, who are increasingly drawn to the Democratic Party’s growing progressive wing, for whom Sanders is the latest standard-bearer.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders attracted nearly 2,500 people to listen Friday night to his passionate call for "a massive jobs program," free public college education and two weeks of mandatory paid vacation for all working Americans — all as part of a political revolution led by the people. It was the Vermont U.S. senator's biggest crowd in Iowa yet, and it was the largest for any single candidate in the 2016 presidential election cycle here so far. "Our job is not to think small. It is to think big!" Sanders said, his voice booming, during a 74-minute speech in a cavernous room at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. "We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. There is nothing that we cannot accomplish if we stand together!"

At Hillary Clinton’s Brooklyn HQ, it’s as if they’ve never heard of him. The Clinton campaign is reading straight from the front-runner’s playbook when dealing with the socialist Vermont senator. Her staff insists it’s taking Sanders’ polling bump seriously while showing no signs of changing its long-charted course. There are no new plans to attack Sanders, no alterations of the forthcoming policy roll-outs that will dot the summer calendar, and no expected leftward sprints to match him policy-for-policy. She doesn’t even mention his name on the campaign trail. .. The explanation for the Sanders surge, Democrats aligned with Clinton and some who are unaffiliated say, is that he has largely captured the share of voters who had previously expressed a preference for Warren, who’s not running. In that way, he’s consolidated the anti-Clinton crowd. “Everyone who’s worked in Democratic politics knows there’s a 30-to-40 percent vote that’s the ‘anybody but the frontrunner’ share,” explained Chris Lehane, a veteran of Bill Clinton’s campaigns who is now helping Hillary raise money.

While many views are presented about how and if to support Bernie Sanders’ campaign to be the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, one thing the campaign has generated is a discussion about socialism in the United States. Yes, it may be unlikely that Sanders will win the nomination. In national polls for the primaries Hillary Clinton, the favorite, did not poll less than 50 percent since April. Bernie Sanders has not polled over 25 percent since June 2014. But recent polls seem to suggest growing support for Sanders, particularly in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Regardless of the results, however, Sanders’ bid for the candidacy has led to a discussion around socialism. .. Public opinion polls have found that Americans favored increases to the minimum wage, the government employing more people, taxes on the wealthy and corporations in order to reduce inequality, increased government involvement in education, and a greater government role in providing health care (although a majority of Americans do not favor government providing healthcare for everyone). While those in favor of a welfare state still have some work to do in convincing the American public of the virtues of many egalitarian government programs that help the poor, promote equality, increase wages and provide a general safety net, the public seems to favor socialistic policies over the socialist label. Even for those in favor of more progressive goals than a simple welfare state, dropping the socialist label can also be an advantage in overcoming the misconception over what the term means (along with its negative connotations). What label should take its place? I will leave that to you.

Bernie tells 2500 in Iowa to 'Think Big As I said yesterday the new smear that everything else is not working will be that 'Bernie is a Protest Vote'. Not that Bernie's the best candidate, the person with the best ideas, the best representation of the Democratic agenda. Well... here is mores of it Eugen Nulman on Sanders And The Rebirth of Socialism