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My Heart is in Burlington The U.S. Socialist Senator A biographical analysis on Senator Bernard “Bernie” Sanders and his road to the U.S. Senate 2006 By Inger-Marie Schjønberg The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages North American Area Studies, Faculty of Humanities UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Spring 2010 In the sainted Lincoln’s chair Beats a heart which knows no care For the lot of those who toil in his domain For the millions poor Seeking work from door to door, That they may the honest needs Of life obtain Mrs. J. T. Kellie Citizen to Citizen— that’s how we make change. From Senator Sanders Unfiltered 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ 2 Preface ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Senator Bernard Sanders –The Lonely Socialist ........................................................................ 5 The Brooklyn Years ................................................................................................................ 6 The Chicago Years ............................................................................................................... 10 Vermont ................................................................................................................................ 12 Why is there no Socialism in the United States?—The Classical Question: ............................ 15 The Role of Third-Party and Independent Politicians .......................................................... 15 A Brief History of Socialism in the United States ..................................................................... 19 First Attempt: the Populist and Progressive Era in American Political History 1886-1901 .......................................................................................................................................... 23 Second Attempt: Progressive Parties, LaFollette, and New Deal .................................... 24 Third Attempt: The Radical, and Privileged Academic Youth of 1960s, and 1970s ....... 26 The Representative of a New Brand of Socialism in the United States- Bernard Sanders .. 29 The Race for Office .......................................................................................................... 29 The Spoiler ....................................................................................................................... 30 The Agenda Setter ............................................................................................................ 36 The Negotiator and the Bi-Partisan Politician .................................................................. 38 The Winner ....................................................................................................................... 40 Political Issues .......................................................................................................................... 47 The Populist Tradition in the United States ............................................................................. 59 Compromiser or Outsider, Socialist or Populist ................................................................... 59 An Ideological Discussion on How Sanders Uses the Term Socialism .................................... 68 Sanders In Light of Lipset and Marks .................................................................................. 68 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 76 Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 78 Interview with Phil Fiermonte, Outreach Director for Senator Bernard Sanders 15.10.09 .......................................................................................................................................... 78 Interview with Bernard Sanders by Irwin Mole in 1990: ................................................. 82 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 94 2 Preface More than 50 years ago the young Michael Harrington said that a generation from then someone would write about poverty in America, and it would be just the same as in his time. 1 Senator Bernard Sanders reminded his audience of Harrington’s statement when addressing the issue of poverty in 2010. The fact is that several million Americans live beneath the poverty line, without health insurance, without a stable home, without being able to pay for their children’s education. In a society like this one might ask the elementary question, where is the labor party? Why have not the laborers and the poor Americans made a revolt? The question has been addressed for decades. This thesis will survey the reasons for the lack of a leftist or social-democratic party in America. I will make an attempt to show that although weak there is a left tradition in the U.S. It is in this context that Senator Sanders is interesting. Though small, and even somewhat iconoclastic, a movement to the left of the Democratic Party exists in the United States, Senator Sanders being part of it. What are the traditions he draws upon? What is his standing? The thesis will try to locate him in a jungle of different small and larger groupings, parties, and grass-roots movements in contemporary America. The journey will go through time and look at several important events in the American history of the radical left, and also the development of main terms and ideologies in this context. Finally, it will end up with seeing the weak left as a result of a nation building project that excluded socialism as such. One interesting fact about America is that rather than building a successful socialist party, some socialist or left values were incorporated into mainstream American political thought, values like equality, upward mobility, equal opportunity, and individualism. Senator Bernard Sanders is a socialist. He calls himself a socialist, and sometimes a social-democrat. His ideal society is the Scandinavian model, he says, combined with the ideas of the American Socialist Eugene Debs. The Senator is also part of the Progressive Coalition in the Senate. He has been part of the progressive political frontier in the United States for nearly two decades now. As a tool in this struggle he uses what politicians throughout the ages have held close to their heart, what Michael Kazin calls a populist impulse. This understanding of Populism gives the term the character of being a psychological tool to create emotions, and not a movement among people. It is important to understand it more as a tool for persuasion, he believes. 2 The term has been misunderstood, hated, loved, and worshiped for ages. For a politician it may mean everything; it may mean downfall or victory. The critique of senators in Washington is loud and clear in the American society. Ever since Andrew Jackson created his front against the “money”-rulers in 3 Washington, D.C., it has been the everlasting struggle between those who believe in “big government” and those who believe in the “little” independent man. This thesis will portray the senator, it will try to place him among his many forefathers, and it will attempt to explain what kind of socialism that has survived in the United States, under the stars and stripes of the American Dream. A question that will arise several times throughout the thesis as a mast on this analytical ship in this rough sea of different political ideas will be the following: to paraphrase Andrew Jackson, is Senator Sanders the rich, proud and privileged socialist senator, or a lower-class warrior of the common man? I want to thank everyone who has supported me while writing this thesis. I would like to thank Phil Fiermonte, Senator Sanders’ campaign outreach director for taking time to give me an interview. I would also like to thank The Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D. C. for their support in trying to set up an interview with Senator Sanders. 4 Senator Bernard Sanders –The Lonely Socialist All American Progressives should unite for Barack Obama.... as progressives we believe this sudden and unexpected new movement is just what America need. The future has arrived. Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher Jr. The United States is a large country, divided, but united by common memories: the War of Independence, the Civil War, the impact of immigrants, the Second World War, the Vietnam War, all together memories that create a community, a nation. Every nation has its own nation-building project, with its own set of ideologies, of common symbols that constitute what can be said to form the nation’s ideology. The United States has its own, the American Creed. This ideology is built on principles far from socialism; it is built on individualism and a strong belief that if you work hard, you can achieve anything you wish. How this collides or can be combined with the ideas of Senator Sanders will be the central topic of the further analysis, and one way to approach his political views is to look a bit closer into his life. Jacques Le Goff wrote the following in 1995 on the art of writing historical biography: “A real biography is first and foremost the life of an individual, and the legitimacy of the biographical genre
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