Bernie Sanders is becoming a force to be reckoned with as his still stigmatized “socialist” view of improving America continues to find real traction on the campaign trail heading toward 2016.

For Sanders, there is nothing wrong with our system of government that taking it back from those who have appropriated its collective wealth wouldn’t solve. That may sound simplistic, but keeping it simple is something that has been politically effective before, and many Americans are plain bone-weary of all the divergent partisan issues that distract from cutting to the chase in turning America towards a more positive direction.

Divide and conquer is a tactic that continues to empower those at the top of our society in maintaining a two-party puppetry that provides constant disruptive political theater and ongoing polarization.

Bernie Sanders is calling out the puppet masters and pointing a finger at the man behind the curtain. If America could only set out on a yellow brick road, leaving the stark black and white limited world we are convinced we are stuck in, and setting off on a wondrous rainbow colored journey towards our potential, then maybe we can get past the false illusion of a capitalist contrived Oz and a truly united America can find its way home again.

Then we might build an even better home. But, first we need to realize that the wealthiest home ever built by nationhood belongs to every citizen, and every citizen deserves an equitable place within it. That message is not a new one, but that idea has been long absent from being seriously entertained anew. Not just mouthed, but passionately articulated with real conviction.

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate now running, in a wideopen but largely closed-minded race, who speaks to populist concerns which are inclusive. His vision isn’t the all too familiar “we against them” message that really is a “we against us” reality that will only marginally and incrementally provide change while sustaining the runaway inequities of a 1 percent vs 99 percent status quo.

Sanders isn’t about tinkering at the margins of what serves most poorly and the wealthiest among us all too well. My blue-collar Republican parents used to call them, with complete admiration, envy and acceptance, the “stinking,” or “filthy,” rich. Trickle-down economics worked back then when the 1 percent contributed well above 70 percent as their tax rate and corporations not only paid taxes but at 1 1/2 times that of an individual.

Sanders is unabashedly all about undertaking totally pragmatic class warfare. That has always been his record, while most politicians have embedded with Wall Street and global corporate domination of American life. Like Ross Perot, Sanders stood against NAFTA while the Clintons held hands with Walmart and found accommodation with a Republican economics which hollowed out the middle class.

The seldom-mentioned-byprime time-news war on the middle class is essentially already won while those that aided and abetted the victors still employ the deception of accusing the oppressed as being the attacker. As Sanders heroically voices, the top one tenth of the 1 percent now own as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent and proportionately pay less in taxes, when they pay any at all.

Other presidential hopefuls address our economic malaise, but none dare take Wall Street’s iconic bull by the horns. They are either for returning to even less oversight of the financial shenanigans that brought about our economic ruin, due to unconscionable greed for the profit of the few, or readily accepting campaign contributions from the principal shenanigators.

Sanders will have none of that.

More and more people, on either side of our great political divide, are realizing that our governance needs a seismic shift towards true independent leadership defined by an authenticity that inspires lasting participation so that, once elected, that leadership maintains sufficient populist leverage to bring about significant change. Obama was authentic. The failure was that voters expected him to govern alone.

Some say that in running as a Democrat, Sanders has already made a fatal compromise to true independence from appeasing the powers that be. Some say that by concentrating so heavily on economic and social justice, to the exclusion of addressing a national security-global interests agenda, he is a one-dimensional candidate to be written off.

Sanders’ failure to be all things to everyone sadly encourages some observers, even those faithful to progressive change, to adopt a defeatist interpretation of political correctness that can’t abide a practicable triage of all that needs to be done so that fundamental realignment of priorities can be achieved.

I recently stood among perhaps 8,000 Mainers who turned out to encourage, or at least listen to, Sanders on his quest toward achieving opportunity and justice for all Americans.

I was particularly heartened by the reaction of those under the age of 25, splendid in their overt enthusiasm despite his advanced years, in recognizing Sanders as the real deal, speaking truth to power, and definitely not the same old same old.

As to Sanders being an avowed socialist? If there ever was an American socialist, it was FDR, and he was elected president four times.

———

Gary Anderson lives in Bath.