A question Bernie Sanders is asked these days again and again: Is his book „Where do we go from here: two years in resistance“ – „How it continues after two years in the resistance“ – only one agenda for the progressive Democrats in the US Congress? Or is it also the program of a presidential candidate for 2020?
Both are conceivable, replied Bernie Sanders in the station MSNBC. In any case, he does not want to rule out a renewed presidential application. „I’ll make that decision at a convenient time,“ he said. But we have to come to the conclusion that I am really the strongest candidate who can beat Donald Trump. “
Democrats take over Sanders‘ positions
In his new book, Sanders describes how much his initially ridiculed „revolution“ has already changed the Democratic Party. Two of his most important demands have since been taken by the mainstream Democrats: a health-insurance scheme financed by taxes for all Americans and the abolition of tuition fees at state universities. Both were before Sanders as „pure socialism“ and politically hardly enforceable in the US.
Other key demands in the book are raising minimum wages to $ 15 an hour, which is equivalent to a good $ 13, equal wages for women and men, and lower drug prices. „Today, there are tens of millions of workers who can not feed their families at $ 10 an hour,“ argues Sanders. „30 million have no health insurance, and many can not afford the prescribed medication.“
„Time to get up“
In the final chapter of his book, Sanders writes: „In my political revolution, ‚think big! – think big!'“ And to all those who resent Trump’s policy, Sanders wants to encourage. This is „not the time for despair,“ he writes. „Now is the time to get up and fight back.“
„We have to deal with the ugly side of Trump,“ says Sanders. „His authoritarianism, his racism, his sexism, we must protect the foundations of our democracy from an authoritarian president.“ All this sounds like an invitation to support another application from Sanders.
Candidature with 79 years?
In fact, he feels strengthened after the congressional elections. By a large majority, he was re-elected for a third term of another six years as an independent senator from Vermont. But if all this is enough for a renewed presidential application?
Sanders would be 79 years old in 2020: a white old man from a federal state where minorities hardly live.
Sanders wants to support progressive candidates
For Matt Viser of the „Washington Post“, there’s something else against Sanders: „The difference this time is the abundance of candidates,“ says Viser. „To Hillary Clinton Sanders was the only alternative, but now the Democrats are getting the same problems as the Republicans with their many candidates in 2016.“
And with minorities and African American voters, Sanders is still struggling, even though his new book contains a chapter on Martin Luther King. If more promising candidates compete to share his progressive agenda, Sanders promises that he will gladly support them.
Maybe the role of the progressive thinker actually suits Sanders better than the one of the Trump challenger.
