Bernie Sanders who got one fuck of a raw deal back in 2016 by way of the Democratic Party, has joined the ballooning field of contenders for the 2020 presidential election in the States.
Once dismissed by many as a fringe candidate with wacky socialist ideas, Bernie Sanders campaigned to the brink of the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and has now set his sights on the White House once again.
Sanders, a 77-year-old US Senator from Vermont, announced on Tuesday that he will join an already crowded field of candidates seeking to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020.
“We’re gonna win,” Sanders told CBS News early this week. ‘We are gonna also launch what I think is unprecedented in modern American history and that is a gras sroots movement to lay the groundwork for transforming the economic and political life of this country. That’s what’s different.”
In a video composed of previous Sanders comments on a variety of pressing topics the current administration is actively sullying, the 2020 edition of this campaign is connected directly to the successful grassroots-style support that gave the Vermont senator such a platform mere years ago.
Healthcare for all, free college tuition, climate change, minimum wage boosts, and immigration are all mentioned in Sanders’ announcement video:
As recently as last month, Sanders was attributing his hesitance to announce a formal 2020 run to his attempts at approaching the question without ego. “When you run for president of the United States, especially in this ugly political world that we live in right now, it is a very difficult decision for one’s family,” he told Stephen Colbert during a recent late show interview.
Though the oldest candidate in the field, Sanders garnered passionate support among young liberals with his calls for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education.
He made the fight against income inequality, which he has called the greatest moral, economic and political issue of our times, the centerpiece of his insurgent campaign.
Four years later, Sanders’ policies remain the same but much has changed on the political landscape.
Trump won the election and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young congresswoman from New York, is a rising Democratic star, embracing many of the positions held by Sanders.