Bernie Sanders

Bernard Sanders is a US-American politician who has held office in the US senate since 2007. He is a self-described "democratic socialist" but within a global context he can be better described as a social democrat, particularly in favor of the Nordic Model of welfare capitalism.

Early life

While a student at University of Chicago, he was a protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement.

Political Career

He is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history, although he has a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career.

Due to the recently right wing and anti-communist U.S. political landscape, his candidacy was attacked by capitalist media sources and the right-wing Democratic Party whose nomination he sought for presidency.

Policy

Domestic Policy

An advocate of social democratic and progressive policies, he is known for his opposition to economic inequality and neoliberalism. On domestic policy, he supports labor rights, universal and single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, tuition-free tertiary education, and an ambitious Green New Deal to create jobs addressing climate change.

Foreign Policy

He supports reducing military spending, pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation, and putting greater emphasis on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements. Despite this, Sanders is not a hardline anti-imperialist.

He supported the US/NATO bombing of socialist Yugoslavia. Anti-imperialist Marxist speaker Michael Parenti briefly speculated that Sanders' avoidance of foreign policy issues is more of a self-preservation tactic; "...when you get into an arguments with the [national security state] you to be careful about your plane crashing, or your car skidding off the road, or a lone assassin..."

Economic Policy

Sanders supports workplace democracy, and has praised elements of the Nordic model. Some commentators, such as Noam Chomsky, have described his politics as aligned with the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and left-wing populism.