Bernard Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States Senator from Vermont since 2007. The longest-serving Independent in congressional history, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 and caucuses with the Democratic Party, enabling his appointment to congressional committees and at times giving Democrats a majority.
Sanders was born and raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, and attended Brooklyn College before graduating from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student he was an active protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement. After settling in Vermont in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third-party political campaigns in the early to mid-1970s. As an independent, he was elected mayor of Burlington—the state’s most populous city—in 1981, by a margin of ten votes. He was reelected three times. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990, representing Vermont’s at-large congressional district; he later co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Sanders served as a U.S. Representative for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. He has been reelected to the Senate twice: in 2012and 2018.
When I talk about rebuilding America, I am not just talking about our physical infrastructure, about bricks and mortar--as important as that is. I also mean our human infrastructure, and meeting the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in our country. The truth is that, as a nation, we do a disgraceful job in providing for our children. We not only have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major nation on earth, but we have a dysfunctional child-care and Pre-K system that has completely ignored the radical changes that have taken place in our economy over the last forty years.
At a time when nearly 60 percent of women are now in the workforce , we need a revolution in this country in terms of how we provide child care and Pre-K education. The bottom line is that we have got to make sure every family in America has the opportunity to send their kids to a high quality child-care and Pre-K program
Staff Comment: Bernie Sanders is speaking out about the pre-elementary education that is needed in urban school districts.
Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 255-256 , Nov 15, 2016
We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies.
● Pass legislation or use administrative action to end the federal 1033 program that supplies federal military weaponry[1] to state and local law enforcement agencies and, where possible, require the return of military weaponry from agencies that have already received these weapons.
● Pass legislation or use administrative action to ban state and local law enforcement agencies from using federal funds to purchase military weaponry.
● Prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding from using military weaponry against civilians and enforce this prohibition by defunding departments who use these weapons against civilians.
Staff Comment: Police are at harms risk everyday. Bernie Sanders wants better trained offices instead of better armed officers in urban neighborhoods.
Source: https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-criminal-justice/
His history as an independent voice unafraid of criticizing the Democratic Party from the left also made him an early critic of mass incarceration and punitive criminal justice policies — a position that made him stand out when both political parties were racing to look “tough on crime” in the 1990s, even if such criticisms are more in line with many Democrats’ beliefs today. Changing the Nature of Incarceration: Bernie wants to abolish private prisons, and focus on rehabilitating those serving time through education and job training. These initiatives can set them up for success upon release and reduce recidivism.
Staff Comment: Bernie Sanders falls right in line with what Urban communities have been asking for decades.
Source: https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-criminal-justice/
“It has been clear to everyone that Russia was deeply involved in the 2016 elections and intends to be involved in the 2018 elections. It is the American people who should be deciding the political future of our country, not Mr. Putin and the Russian oligarchs,” Sanders said in a statement.
Staff Comment: Bernie Sanders acknowledges that foreign countries are using social media to influence elections but has failed to acknowledge that he himself may have benefited from their influence.
Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/16/bernie-sanders-russia-2016-election-interference-415691
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