Why Bernie Sanders Matters

I wrote not too long ago about the upcoming confrontation in the Democratic Primary. Now that Bernie Sanders has thrown his hat in the ring we can go from hypothetical arguments to real arguments. First, before I get into the meat of my argument, I must state that, as a political realist, I do not foresee Sanders actually winning the primary. I do not discount the possibility that Hillary may completely implode her candidacy with scandals, remember 2008 and how her last "coronation" went, but that does not mean that Sanders can win the general election. All the Wall Street bankers and all the Kochs of the United States will spend every penny they have in order to prevent Sanders from becoming President. I would even go so far as to say that if Sanders is the Democratic nominee, then we may see the first mass examples of election fraud in a very long time with conservatives using every means necessary to prevent a "socialist" from becoming President. If you thought 2000 was a fiasco, wait until you see a 2016 with Sanders as the Democratic candidate. But this is all somewhat pointless because I do not believe he will get that far.

So then, why does Sanders matter? As I have previously mentioned Sanders is important because he will force Hillary to the left. But that is not the only reason. The Left has been devoid of a voice that America respects ever since Eugene V. Debs left the political scene. Sure there have been leftists who have galvanized large bases of support but none have been able to truly be "the voice" of the left in America. Do I think Sanders can be that voice? Yes and no. I say no because he is not particularly charismatic and is not likely to draw the admiration of large groups of people. However, I am swayed towards saying yes for one simple reason; Sanders is unapologetic about his beliefs. For the first time in generations we have a popular left-leaning politician who isn't going out of their way to deny being a socialist or having socialist tendencies. Many people may not agree with socialism but they will at least respect Sanders for being honest. Now I do not think that Sanders is truly a socialist, but he gives voice to socialist-esque policies that have not been seriously considered by Americans for generations. The problem with people like Warren and Hillary is that even if they truly are leftists in their heart of hearts, they go out of their way to deny it instead calling themselves "Progressives" as if they are the modern embodiment of Teddy Roosevelt. Sanders does not try and hide his leftism and instead embraces it wholeheartedly.

Another reason Bernie is important is because he will try to show Americans, especially younger Americans who have no memory of life during the Cold War, that socialism does not have to be equated with the Soviet Union. Naturally this message will probably be lost on all the Baby Boomers and most of Gen-X but there is a hope, no matter how faint, that Millennials may be introduced to a new, modern "socialism" that will open them up to socialism more broadly. Even if Sanders does not ideologically fit what pretty much anyone on the serious left would identify as socialist he could be effective at reintroducing America to socialism as an idea. The sad fact of the matter is that the Cold War eliminated the viability of the left in American electoral politics and the left has never been able to recover.

The left needs a shot in the arm and Bernie Sanders may be the first of many doses this country will need in order to have a viable leftist movement reemerge from the aftermath of the Cold War. Occupy may have galvanized the left into mass action, but it failed to unify into an electoral force. Maybe a candidate like Sanders can motivate Occupiers to come out of the shadow of activism and join the world of electoral politics. Some try to claim that activism gets more done or is superior to electoral politics but if you don't have enough sympathetic politicians in the halls of power then all the activism in the world will fall on deaf ears and result in nothing but a lot of lovely rhetoric.