Reprinted from The Nation
Russ Feingold is running again for the United States Senate. That's got DC insiders excited, because the former senator is way ahead in the polls and his victory in 2016 could play a critical role in tipping control of the Senate backed to the Democrats.
But Feingold has never been one for simple partisanship. His independence is legendary -- as is his determination to stand on principle against not just Republicans and Wall Street but his own party and its leaders.
To a greater extent than anyone who has served in the Senate in recent decades, Feingold has a reputation for getting ahead of major issues and getting them right. It is a reputation forged not by reading polls or accepting the compromise-prone Washington way of doing things but by rejecting a failed political "consensus" and instead choosing to champion civil liberties, peace, clean elections and, above all, economic fairness.
Russ Feingold cast the sole Senate vote against the Patriot Act in 2001. He was right about that, and most people who pay attention to politics are aware of his visionary stance.
Russ Feingold was in the minority that voted against authorizing George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to take the United States to war with Iraq in 2002. He was right about that, and most people who pay attention to politics are aware of his visionary stance.