Sen.
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks to the media on Capitol Hill about his
agenda in running for president. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – There were no “Bernie 2016!” placards, no cheering
masses, no carefully curated Americana-themed campaign song selections
here at the Capitol Thursday when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced
his intention to seek the 2016 Democratic nomination for president.
Instead, there was just a candidate, a few staffers, a dozen cameras, a
few dozen more reporters and tourists who accidentally witnessed as
they passed by what could be a seminal moment in the fledgling campaign
season — the moment when the first challenger to presumptive favorite
Hillary Clinton declared his intention to change the debate within the
party.
“We’re in this race to win,” Sanders replied firmly when asked why he was running for the White House.
But it was clear from Sanders’ other statements during his 10-minute
press availability that his campaign is not just about winning — it’s
about proving that a candidate like him can matter in what he views as a
broken election system.
With his announcement, Sanders seemed to create what amounts to a
political litmus test for modern campaigning, fueled in part by his
self-avowed socialist views of economic equality and in part by the
narcissism it takes for any candidate, regardless of ideology, to decide
to run for president.
“Let me say this, and I say this to you honestly: One of the
hesitancies I had about deciding whether to run or not is obviously
dealing with money. I’m not going to get money from the Koch brothers,
and I’m not going to get money from billionaires. I’m going to have to
raise my campaign contributions through BernieSanders.com, small
campaign contributions. That’s how I’m going to do it,” Sanders said.
“But I seriously wonder — and it’s not just Bernie Sanders — whether
any candidate who is not a billionaire or who is not beholden to the
billionaire class, [is] able to run successful campaigns,” he continued.
“If that is the case, I want you all to recognize what a sad state of
affairs that is for the American democracy.”
“I’m
not going to get money from the Koch brothers, and I’m not going to get
money from billionaires,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told a small assemblage
as he announced his bid for the Democratic nomination. (Photo: Jacquelyn
Martin/AP)
Sanders’ track record in Congress reveals that he can stick to his talking points until he is red in the face (and he often is), railing at how the richest Americans profit on
the backs of the lower class. And he is probably serious about his vow
not to be bankrolled by billionaires (the campaign website to which he
referred features a parenthetical footnote below the standard political disclaimer saying the website is paid for by Bernie 2016 and “not the billionaires.”)
The candidate’s list of what he does not want his campaign, or any campaign, frankly,
to be is longer than what he thinks it should be. He directly asked
reporters present at his announcement not to view campaigns as
“political gossip,” “soap operas” or “the Red Sox versus the Yankees.”
The short list of what he thinks a campaign should
be? Serious, substantive policy debates free of influence from the
small number of very wealthy Americans who take it on themselves to
bankroll what has become the most expensive of endeavors, running for
president.
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