Bernie Sanders Might Just Have to Run for President

When we spoke recently about the challenges facing progressive candidates, Sanders said what most politicians will not:

"This small handful of multi-billionaires control the economics of this country. They determine whether jobs stay in the United States or whether they go to China. They determine how much we're going to BE paying for a gallon of gas. They determine whether we're going to transform our economic system away from fossil fuel. Economically, they clearly have an enormous amount of power. And, now, especially with Citizens United, these very same people are now investing in politics. That's what oligarchy is. Oligarchy is when a small number of people control the economic and political life of the country -- certainly including the media -- and we are rapidly moving toward an oligarchic form of society."

Sanders actually likes the prospects of taking on the oligarchs, saying: "And I think you can bring people together to say: Look, we may have our disagreements, but we don't want billionaires deciding who the next governor is going to be, the next senator, the next president of the United States. As someone who believes in that type of grassroots organizing, I think it's a great opportunity."

So any presidential run by Sanders would rely on small contributions and grassroots support. But the core of the strategy would be that challenge to oligarchy, with its focus on values and ideas that have been too long dismissed by prominent presidential contenders and the media that covers them.

In effect, says Sanders, he would run only if he thought that he could fill the great void in the American political discourse, and in so doing inspire voters to reject old orthodoxies in favor of a new populist politics that would have as its core theme economic justice.

When we spoke about what is missing from American politics, Sanders  told me  that the president America needs would begin the discussion, as Franklin Roosevelt did, by calling out the plutocrats and their political and media minions.

Imagine, explains Sanders, if Americans had a president who said to them: "I am going to stand with you. And I am going to take these guys on. And I understand that they're going to be throwing thirty-second ads at me every minute. They're going to do everything they can to undermine my agenda. But I believe that if we stand together, we can defeat them."

The senator explained the concept that would, necessarily, underpin a presidential bid:

"If you had a President who said: 'Nobody in America is going to make less than $12 or $14 an hour,' what do you think that would do? If you had a President who said: 'You know what, everybody in this country is going to get free primary health care within a year,' what do you think that would do? If you had a President say, 'Every kid in this country is going to go to college regardless of their income,' what do you think that would do? If you had a President say, 'I stand here today and guarantee you that we are not going to cut a nickel in Social Security; in fact we're going to improve the Social Security program,' what do you think that would do? If you had a President who said, "Global warming is the great planetary crisis of our time, I'm going to create millions jobs as we transform our energy system. I know the oil companies don't like it. I know the coal companies don't like it. But that is what this planet needs: we're going to lead the world in that direction. We're going to transform the energy system across this planet -- and create millions of jobs while we do that.' If you had a President say that, what kind of excitement would you generate from young people all over this world?"

Whether Sanders runs or not, the prospect of such a speak-truth-to-power presidency is an appealing one. And the senator from Vermont is right: Americans do not just deserve such an option. In these times, they need a serious progressive alternative to the ugly politics of austerity -- and the empty politics of compromise.

John Nichols discusses another candidate of progressives' dreams: Elizabeth Warren.