"Basically, Sanders is making a call to arms for Americans to take back our democracy."

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Our Opinion: Take back our democracy
Editorial, Brattleboro Reformer, October 17, 2014

There's been a lot of talk lately about Vermont's independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders making a run for president in 2016.

Sanders himself has expressed both an interest in and misgivings about such a prospect and the political logistics involved. He's motivated to help solve some of America's most daunting problems -- not the least of which is the overburdened, disappearing middle class -- but at the same time he has doubts that he will be able to effect real change with such an apathetic electorate.

In recent appearances around the country Sanders has been talking about the need to rejuvenate the American public into reclaiming their democracy from the oligarchs who are trying to control the political process with their money.

"If somebody like me -- or me -- became president, there is no chance in the world that anything significant could be accomplished without the active, unprecedented support of millions of people, who would be prepared to make a commitment -- the likes of which we have not made!" he recently told about 150 people who filled an arts center in Waterloo, Iowa.

Sanders spoke for about an hour in which he denounced the power of the wealthy, advocated for single-payer health care and the public funding of elections -- and called for a "political revolution" in America, reports Andrew Prokop for Vox.com.

Sanders argued that his positions -- critical of the wealthy and corporate power, supportive of campaign finance reform, skeptical of trade deregulation and cutting social services -- had the support of most Americans. But, he said, more than half of the public remained politically apathetic. Only 37.8 percent of the voting age population went to the polls in the last mid-term election in 2010.

"(Sixty) percent of the American people are not likely to vote in the coming election," he said. "You think you can bring around change with that dynamic? You can have the best human being in the world in the White House fighting all the right fights, and he or she will fail."

The question, he said, was whether those average Americans would join the political process -- because, if they didn't, the power of billionaires and corporate interests would never be checked.

Speaking at a labor union convention in Las Vegas earlier this week, Sanders reiterated his warning that the future of American democracy is at stake. He said billionaires Charles and David Koch and other wealthy individuals are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into this fall's campaigns by taking advantage of a disastrous 2010 Supreme Court ruling and subsequent court decisions that gutted federal and state laws limiting campaign spending.

"The Koch Brothers are trying to buy the Senate," Sanders said in his statement. "This is not what democracy is supposed to be about. Billionaires should not be allowed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars electing candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful."

Meanwhile, he noted again that 60 percent of Americans are not voting. "That's called oligarchy, not democracy," Sanders said.

Sanders has long advocated pub[l]ic funding of campaigns to make elections more about ideas and less about which candidates have more money in their campaign coffers.

Sanders also is a co-sponsor of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. Senate Republicans on Sept. 11 blocked consideration of the amendment.

"While the Senate vote was a victory for Republicans, it was a defeat for American democracy. The fight to overturn Citizens United must continue at the grassroots level in every state in this country," Sanders told the convention in Las Vegas.

To address the issue of low voter turner (especially among young people and black voters), Sanders urged the union delegates to redouble efforts in their communities to boost turnout so the election outcomes reflect the views of strong majorities of Americans who want Congress to help create jobs, address the collapse of the middle class, close corporate tax loopholes and make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.

Basically, Sanders is making a call to arms for Americans to take back our democracy. Of course, it won't be easy to turn so much apathy into a sustained movement that by sheer force of will and numbers can effect real change and bring about the amicable solutions the vast majority of Americans want. But it's worth a shot.
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