Although he campaigned aggressively against both Trump and Clinton, candidate Sanders worked hard to back Democratic Congressional candidates, helping to achieve a number of upset victories, including in traditionally red states in the south and midwest. As a result, he enters the White House backed by solid majorities in both chambers of Congress and carrying a mandate for dramatic change not seen since Franklin Roosevelt's big sweep in 1932.
While only two Green Party candidates for Congress won election in November (both in California), a number of successful candidates for House and Senate who ran as Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Russ Feingold {D-WI), and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), announced after Election Day that they were switching their party affiliations to Green, though all said they would continue caucusing with Democrats in the new Congress for purposes of committee assignments and strategy on promoting the Sanders agenda.
Acknowledging in his address that he anticipated push-back from hard-core conservatives and Trump Republicans in Congress, particularly on his appointments to the federal courts and to cabinet posts and regulatory agencies (Republicans still have enough votes to conduct filibusters and place holds on nominations), Sanders told the inaugural throng on the National Mall, which spilled out onto side streets, requiring the installation of makeshift speaker systems on lampposts, "I want you all to be prepared to come back here and make yourselves very familiar to the members of this new Congress whenever we run into roadblocks. This mall -- and the halls of Congress -- are your property! They are here so you can be here whenever you feel you need to be, and I promise you will be able to stay put, with tents and with the necessary amenities and without any opposition from park police, whenever you feel it necessary!"
After the cheering and applause had finally subsided, Sanders added, "...or when I put out a call saying I need your help down here!" That kicked off a sustained cheering that morphed into a chant of "Revolution! Revolution!"
It was not your normal inaugural address to be sure!
Sanders ended his speech with a bow to the inaugural address of a former upstart President, John F. Kennedy.
"Ask not what this country can do for you," he said. "Ask what you, the American people, working together and for the good of all, can do for yourselves and for this great nation.--
AUTHOR'S NOTE: While this article is a fantasy, there are several parts that are rooted in reality, including these two facts: Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein did offer to surrender her spot at the head of the Green ticket to Sanders if he wanted it, and those polls that continued to include Sanders in them during the general election campaign consistently showed him trouncing Trump right through election day. It could have happened had Sanders chosen to run as a Green.
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