Does Bernie Sanders Want To Be Hillary Clinton’s Vice President? The questions remains open since a Unity Ticket Could Avoid Ugly Convention Battle. Even if Bernie was opposed to it at the beginning , things changed after losing three out of four contests on Tuesday, Sanders issued a statement that seemed to suggest he may be interested in the job after all. He even declared during a meeting in Rhode Island : “Democrats should recognize that the ticket with the best chance of winning this November must attract support from independents as well as Democrats. I am proud of my campaign’s record in that regard.”
Bernie Sanders is an independent Senator of Vermont. Since his political debut a socialist in 1971 he has been inspired from the Scandinavian economic and political systems. Sanders is today a serious candidate to Democratic Primary, leading to the presidential elections.
Senator Sanders is about to make history. No one would have bet on a 74 years-old candidate to be such an important character of the 2016 elections. Bernie Sanders is fighting for his last, biggest battle he ever had. His ideas never changed since the 70´s: he was a socialist during the cold war, he is still one today. Sanders defines himself more precisely as a “social democrat, with Scandinavians roots”. From a European perspective, socialists are very common, but it is still an injury in the United States for many citizens. More than a surprise in the American election, Bernie Sanders will remain a long term symbol of protestation against the neo liberal system.
Where does Bernie´s success come from? What distinguish him from his opponents?
Everything from the beginning pushed Sanders out from the election. From where does his success come? How does Bernie manage to unify so many Americans behind him?
Contrary to Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders is white and old. Obama had much more charism as a leader than Sanders. Afro-American voters, who represent 20% of the United States electorate, are not interested in Sanders. The young, white people are coming in mass to attend the old professor Sanders.
As Obama in 2008, one of the keys of Bernie´s success is the internet. His advantage does not come from the number of his followers or fans. But Bernie Sanders is the most raised candidate on Facebook or Twitter. Many American bloggers provide a huge amount of information and propaganda for Bernie Sanders. Sanders is pushed up by social communities, which provide a very positive image of the senator through the web.
Unlikely to his first opponent Hillary Clinton and also the republicans, Sanders campaign is not financed by big corporations or rich contributors but mostly from small private donations. According to his team, 99% of Bernie’s contributors gave less than $100. But all this small donations enabled Sanders to collect $1 million by April 2015. Such an amount was never reached in any American presidential campaign. Today, Sanders is just behind Clinton in terms of campaign finance.
Bernie’s Program
The propositions from the Vermont Senator are based on the reduction of inequalities between rich and poor people. As he often mentioned, 1% of the world´s population holds 50% of the global wealth. To do so, Sanders propose 5 main pillars:
- A state providing healthcare insurance, available for everyone and free for the poorest
- Increase the minimum wage to $15
- Tax higher incomes
- Introduce public and tuition-free universities
- Introduce paid vacations
Is Bernie a plausible candidate?
Today, Hillary Clinton is still ahead in terms of delegates: 1,758 against 1, 076 delegates for Bernie Sanders. Despite the very close results, Clinton has an advantage as she obtained far more super delegates than Sanders (469 versus 31). The next elections in New-York on February, 19th will be a crucial date. 1,931 democratic delegates are still to be allocated yet. Bernie Sanders is already behind Hillary Clinton. The election in the state of New-York will be his last chance to challenge ex-minister and pretend to the presidential elections.
