I endorse Bernie for President in 2020, having witnessed his career in Vermont.

Here is evidence that Bernie is electable and has won for decades with the coalition needed to defeat Trump.

Bernie being the nominee will cause a progressive-led Blue Wave election. Enthusiastic Democratic base equals high voter turnout which equals victory. Simple.

We have evidence that Bernie helps “down-ballot Democrats.” Vermont always sends a full Democratic delegation to Washington. Voters turn out specifically to support Bernie, the most popular Vermont politician by a mile, and then vote for other decent Democrats, like Senator Leahy. Bernie is the obvious lynchpin of the delegation. Vermont Democrats “ride his coattails” and national Democrats should adopt the strategy.

"But is he electable?" Yes! Bernie has gotten elected in Vermont for decades with the exact coalition needed for the general election in November to defeat Trump. Bernie always pulls support from Republicans and Independents. He has earned the grudging respect of conservative working people through authenticity. Bernie gets lots of votes from the beer-drinking carpenters who voted for Trump and the working poor in the ‘fly-over country’ part of the state. To cite the current president, 12% of Trump’s general election vote originally voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary.

A Sanders nomination will almost guarantee Vermont gets a new governor, in Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a Sanders ally, who has the best chance in years to oust entrenched GOP Gov. Phil Scott.

When Bernie was elected Mayor of Burlington in 1981, the pundits predicted disaster in newspapers that my father brought home. But Bernie listened, plowed the snow better, and won reelection. (Burlington’s snowplow trucks had been plowing badly so that it blocked driveways for the working-class a.m. commuters.) Bernie brought people together to redevelopment the Lake Champlain’s waterfront from abandoned industrial buildings to bike paths and concert venues. Lake Michigan should be so lucky!

I saw Bernie speak in my high school cafeteria during a run for Congress. He gave a rousing speech about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement. He called on us to join the struggle already-in-progress. He described a great movement to make the world a better place that needed our help. I was improved by having been asked onto the field.

Bernie is reluctant to brag of his best credential: he participated courageously in MLK’s movement back-in-the-day. He practices electoral politics using some of the methods of non-violent civil disobedience developed by MLK and Gandhi. This helps explain the quiet spirituality of the campaign. Senator Nina Turner, campaign co-chair, regularly talks in the language of the Christian tradition, like in New Hampshire where I heard her say, “There is nothing a conscious-minded people can’t accomplish when we come together.”

I ask Democrats to face tough truths. Biden is not fit for the job. Some Establishment Democrats would rather lose with Biden that win with Bernie. Bernie winning is a loss of power for a large block of party insiders who profit from selling out the progressive base. Bernie could “reboot the brand” of the Democratic Party as the party of working people and pivot towards winning again for decades. Democrats must choose to let in the Sanders Movement and be revitalized, or derail us again and lose. As a lifelong Democratic voter, I challenge party leadership to smarten up and win with Bernie in 2020 and beyond. The progressive movement needs a party that represents us. Let us in or we are going to walk away.

Democratic voters need to ignore the media propaganda and trust what is obviously true. Bernie is the best candidate to defeat Trump. Vermont history proves this. May the truth win in 2020.







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Theo Talcott

About author Theo Talcott blogs at Theo Talcott blogs at http://thinkingaboutsurvival.blogspot.com/