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cal04

(41,505 posts)
Mon Oct 5, 2015, 10:01 PM Oct 2015

Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Mayor

A profile of the presidential candidate written in the 1980s, as he got his start in politics
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/bernie-sanders-mayor/407413/


In 1985, when Bernie Sanders was in his second term as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, a writer named Russell Banks published his breakthrough novel, Continental Drift. It would earn Banks the John Dos Passos Prize, and make him a finalist for the Pulitzer for fiction. Sometime after the book came out, Banks accepted an assignment to profile the self-described socialist mayor. He followed Sanders around the city, watched him interact with constituents, and recorded his candid views. He produced a remarkable and compelling portrait of a distinctive politician, but it never found its way into print. Instead, it was filed away for three decades. With Sanders leading in the polls in New Hampshire, though, we now offer it to our readers, as a look at the senator before he became a national figure.

(snip)
In a spluttering burst of words with a pace and curl that are distinctly Brooklyn, Sanders announces that he’s the mayor and this is Alderman Thabault here and they’re out tonight visiting the people in Ward Five just to talk to the folks and see how things are. “We’re here to listen to complaints. But we also want to hear about the good things, too,” he adds, passing her a thin smile. Abruptly, he stops smiling and waits for the woman’s response.

“I recognized you from TV,” she says, and she visors her eyes against the setting sun with her hand and takes a step back, as if to get a better look.

Sanders says, “So we’re just here to find out if everything’s okay, if, you know, there’s anything in particular you want to talk about with us.” He pauses. “Everything okay?”

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/bernie-sanders-mayor/407413/
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Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Mayor (Original Post) cal04 Oct 2015 OP
I saw this today and never got back to it underpants Oct 2015 #1
Ironic tht the article called him a sewer socialist. eridani Oct 2015 #2
Good article. Somewhat long, but worth the read. PotatoChip Oct 2015 #3

eridani

(51,907 posts)
2. Ironic tht the article called him a sewer socialist.
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 04:58 AM
Oct 2015

That was Eugene Debs' term of contempt for socialists who got elected to local office and proceeded to busy themselves with the minutiae of governing. "They care more about cleaning the streets than marching on them!"

PotatoChip

(3,186 posts)
3. Good article. Somewhat long, but worth the read.
Tue Oct 6, 2015, 08:38 AM
Oct 2015

I especially liked this excerpt, but the entire piece gives some very good insight as to who Bernie Sanders is as a person, -and- as a 'get-things-done-for-the-people's-sake' kind of politician...

His election, clearly, was in many respects due to luck, flukey circumstances not likely ever to be repeated in Burlington. But it was also due to Sanders’ willingness to work long hours, day after day, week after week, knocking on doors, speaking to crowds until his voice went hoarse, shaking hands on cold, windy street corners until his right hand swelled and turned numb and, perhaps most significantly, evoking from his supporters a kind of passionate loyalty that a party machine or patronage can never generate. An ideology can generate that kind of self-sacrifice, however, and so can a remarkable personality. Sanders had both going for him. His record as a radical activist and his long association with the Liberty Union Party kept the leftist regulars out there on the hustings those cold months, knocking on doors, handing out leaflets, raising money with raffles and yard sales. But his personality brought out a commitment from many who normally regarded a politician as someone with a peculiar and slightly dangerous mental illness.

T. Alan Broughton remembers going along reluctantly with a group of local poets and writers who were giving a reading to raise funds for Sanders’s election. “We read our poems, and it was nice enough, sort of like a coffeehouse event from the Sixties, and then we passed the hat, and then Bernie got up to say a few words, of thanks, we figured. He started talking about how much he liked poetry, how much it had always meant to him, like we all expected him to do, and then, before we knew it, he was reading a couple of his own poems, which weren’t really all that great, but they had a passionate Beat Generation kind of intensity to them, about the poor, of course, and the evils of capitalism. Then, suddenly, there he was reciting from memory “Do Not Go Gentle”, by Dylan Thomas, reciting this rich, rolling Welchman’s poem in a heavy Brooklyn accent. And it was kind of wonderful, you know? He was loving the poem, letting us see him love it, and reading it totally unselfconsciously in this utterly inappropriate accent, and I felt then for the first time how great it would be to have a guy like that as mayor of my city.”


"reading it totally unselfconsciously, in this utterly inappropriate accent"
I actually consider this to be one of Bernie's endearing qualities.

One final observation: Most of the comments are positive, but of the negatives, I am seeing 2 themes, and they are coming from self described right wingers. This is something I find quite interesting, considering the fact that they are some of the same criticisms I am seeing here on DU.

1) The democratic socialist label. The article's right wing commentators are extremely un-informed as to the meaning of the term. In my humble opinion, they really shouldn't be criticizing democratic socialism until they have a little more understanding as to what it actually means.

2) The fact that both the state of Vermont as well as Scandinavian countries are made up of mostly white people. However, (while strongly implying it) they fail to adequately explain why this is an actual problem, rather than a random, irrelevant, demographic triviality.

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