Bernie Sanders

The struggle to create a nation and world of economic and social justice and environmental sanity is not an easy one. The struggle to try and create a more peaceful world will be extremely difficult. But this I know. Despair is not an option if we care about our kids and grandchildren. Giving up is not an option if we want to prevent irreparable harm to our planet.

We must stand up and fight back. We must launch a political revolution which engages millions of Americans from all walks of life in the struggle for real change. This country belongs to all of us, not just the billionaire class. And that’s what this campaign is all about.

       Bernie Sanders: The Vox conversation


From Wikipedia
Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is the junior United States Senator from Vermont and a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. A self-described democratic socialist,  he favors policies similar to those of social democratic parties in Europe, particularly those of Scandinavia.  He caucuses with the Democratic Party and has been the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee since January 2015.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sanders attended Brooklyn College before transferring to and graduating from the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the Young People's Socialist League, and active in the Civil Rights Movement as a student protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1963, he participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Sanders settled in Vermont in 1968, and ran unsuccessfully for Governor and U.S. Senator in the early to mid-1970s as a member of the Liberty Union Party. As an independent supported by the Vermont Progressive Party, Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont's most populous city, in 1981. He was reelected to three more two-year mayoral terms before being elected to represent Vermont's at-large congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in 1990. He served as a congressman for 16 years before being elected to succeed the retiring Republican-turned-independent Jim Jeffords in the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, he was reelected by a large margin, capturing almost 71% of the popular vote.

Since his election to the Senate, Sanders has emerged as a leading progressive voice on issues like income inequality,  universal healthcare, parental leave, climate change,  LGBT rights, and campaign finance reform.  He rose to national prominence on the heels of his 2010 filibuster  of the proposed extension of the Bush-era tax rates for the wealthy. Sanders is also outspoken on civil liberties, and has been particularly critical of mass surveillance policies such as the Patriot Act, along with racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.

          Bernie Sanders Portland Rally with Crowd of 20,000