Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) unabashed progressivism was on full display during an event at an Iowa university Saturday night — as were the reasons his potential bid remains a long-shot.
{mosads}According to CNN, Sanders gave an overall well-received speech to an audience of about 130 supporters at a Dubuque, Iowa, university Saturday night. He’s made no secret of his interest in the 2016 presidential election, and said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” he may run as a Democrat if he decides to launch a bid.
But the early outlines of what would ostensibly be his platform underscored how much of an underdog he’d be if Sanders does run.
He reportedly laid out three planks of his “Agenda for America,” one of which was a nationalized healthcare system.
“The United States of America needs to join with the rest of the industrialized world and have a nationalized healthcare,” he said.
With Americans still divided over healthcare reform, which progressives say doesn’t go far enough and comes nowhere near to a fully nationalized system, it’s difficult to see Sanders’s pitch for reform picking up much traction nationally.
Touching on a more popular theme, Sanders called for the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited sums on elections, to be overturned.
“We have got to restore the democracy to the United States of America by overturning this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision. … I do not believe that people fought and died for democracy so that billionaires can buy elections,” Sanders said.
But his crusade against big money in politics is yet another count against his potential run, as he’d be up against a slate of candidates with billionaire backers and million-dollar campaigns.
Still, he insists he’s taking the prospect seriously, and has two town hall events planned in Iowa on Sunday — the same day the presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, descends on the state for her first return visit since her failed 2008 presidential bid.
Clinton is headlining Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D) annual steak fry fundraiser, and her starpower has sparked a flurry of media coverage both locally and nationally. In contrast, Sanders’s Saturday-night speech apparently drew just two outlets: CNN and the local newspaper.
Sanders has been named as a potential alternative to Clinton for progressives frustrated with her positions on Wall Street reform and entitlements, among other issues. But he has admitted the scenario in which he could win would be “unprecedented.”
“For me to win, it would require a grassroots effort on the part of literally millions of people. Unprecedented,” he told MSNBC this week. “What we need now is a political revolution.”
And that’s what he called for on Saturday night.
“We need a political revolution in this country,” Sanders said, according to CNN. “Politics is terribly important, and what happens in Washington and state capitals is also enormously important.”
In closing, Sanders urged attendees to begin building just that, to organize supporters in Iowa around some of the issued he had raised during his Saturday night speech.
“Our job is to educate, is to organize, is to go outside our zone of comfort,” he said. “We need to build coalitions.”