114
votes
Accepted
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
Basically Bernie Sanders used the wrong term and it stuck. For some unfathomable reason, he refers to himself as a socialist while espousing policies that are clearly social Democrat in line with most ...
- 3,583
83
votes
Accepted
Why did the DNC try to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting the Democratic nomination?
In short, because Democratic Party in USA is roughly split between two factions (I'll label them "progressive" and "establishment" just for the sake of labeling).
FiveThirtyEight covered this split ...
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66
votes
Why did the DNC try to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting the Democratic nomination?
The idea that the DNC "rigged" the primaries is false.
I voted Bernie in the primary, too, but it is very important not to take the claim in the WikiLeaks graphic at face value.
This July ...
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65
votes
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
Why is it that Bernie Sanders always called a "socialist"?
I think getting a quick history lesson to get some context might help explain how "socialist" is used in US media.
First, I want to ...
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64
votes
Accepted
Is there any rule or law stopping Bernie Sanders from running as a third party candidate?
Unfortunately, the answer is probably yes and no.
Every state & territory has different rules & procedures governing who can appear on a ballot and how they qualify to be there.
Some, if not ...
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58
votes
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
It seems likely that people call him a socialist because he's self-identified as one on multiple occasions.
and
When he first won election to the House in 1990, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) embraced ...
- 2,602
42
votes
Accepted
Why are states easily won by Bernie Sanders in 2016 not supporting him in 2020?
The simple answer is there was more competition.
In 2016, it was mostly Sanders vs Clinton for the Democratic Primary. She had several potential scandals brewing (her private email server, questions ...
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40
votes
Why do such a relatively high percentage of Republicans approve of Bernie Sanders?
Sanders ran on a platform promising to shake up the elites that take wealth away from the people, serve corporate interests and provide limited services to poor people. He definitely ran as an ...
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35
votes
What is a "major country" as named in Bernie Sanders' Healthcare debate answers?
Bernie Sanders tweeted the graphic below in April of 2019, it was accompanied by the following text (emphasis mine):
Every other major country has made health care a right for all. Anyone who says ...
JJJ♦
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32
votes
Accepted
How come there are so many candidates for the 2020 Democratic party presidential nomination?
The number of Declared Republican Candidates in 2016 was 17 according to Ballotpedia. Donald Trump and
Jeb Bush
Ben Carson
Chris Christie
Ted Cruz
Carly Fiorina
Jim Gilmore
Lindsey ...
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28
votes
Accepted
What is a "major country" as named in Bernie Sanders' Healthcare debate answers?
You can expect truth in campaign speeches, but not scientific definitions. For an approximation of major countries, try the G7.
Of course the G7 misses China, India, Russia, Brazil, which are quite ...
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28
votes
Why are states easily won by Bernie Sanders in 2016 not supporting him in 2020?
It likely has something to do with who he was running against in 2016. It's hard to make a "head-to-head" comparison when the opposition was different.
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26
votes
Accepted
As of August 2017, what would it take for Bernie Sanders to assume the presidency of the United States?
This is absurd. It will never happen. That said, Bernie Sanders would have to do one of
Get appointed Vice President. This requires the VP slot to be vacated (by death, impeachment, resignation, ...
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25
votes
Why did the DNC try to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting the Democratic nomination?
It should also be mentioned that Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat. He ran for the Senate as an independent. While he caucused with the Democrats, he never claimed to be one before running for ...
- 90.3k
19
votes
Accepted
How could Bernie Sanders stall the $2tn economic rescue package?
That story is from 2 days ago before it passed and is no longer a relevant point.
The issue was that 4 republican senators stalled the bill to try to weaken unemployment benefits. Sanders made a ...
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18
votes
Accepted
How many Americans are actually uninsured?
How many Americans are uninsured?
According to the Bureau of the Census, in 2016 there were 27.3 million uninsured people in America. This was based on the American Community Survey, which is ...
- 24k
17
votes
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
Folks who support the view that Sanders is actually socialist sometimes point to this quote from him way back in 1987:
Democracy means public ownership of the major means of production, it
means ...
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17
votes
Is there any rule or law stopping Bernie Sanders from running as a third party candidate?
In addition to the "sore loser" laws mentioned in the other answer, candidate filing deadlines rarely allow a candidate to do this.
For example, the deadline for filing to run as an independent in ...
- 1,415
16
votes
Accepted
Why is the US so politically right-wing?
(This answer assumes right-wing as in: individualist / small-government / pro-business, not right-wing as in authoritarian or royalist)
This has to do with the history of the USA. A complete answer ...
- 49.3k
16
votes
Why are states easily won by Bernie Sanders in 2016 not supporting him in 2020?
There are more candidates at this point in the race, so votes are going to be more split. Expecting % differences to remain constant doesn't make much sense when at least 4 candidates got non-...
- 3,979
15
votes
Does Kamala Harris vote with Trump's position less often than Bernie Sanders?
538 actually has whole analysis devoted to this, showing both how often a member votes in line with Trump's position and comparing that to Trump's vote share in their district.
According to their ...
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14
votes
Why did the DNC try to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting the Democratic nomination?
The basic mechanism of a political party is to reward loyalty and create a unified front. Clinton had some 40+ years of favors to call in from various democrats, and anybody in the party who threw in ...
- 534
14
votes
Accepted
What did Bernie Sanders do with all the cash from his 2016 campaign?
According to the FEC the Sander 2016 campaign raised 237.7 million and disbursed 233.0 million, leaving 4.7 million cash on hand as of Dec 2018.
I can't imagine that he gave it to the DNC, as ...
- 10.5k
12
votes
What safeguards has the DNC added to prevent a situation like what they did to Bernie Sanders in the last election (2016)?
Note: The earlier version of the question when I answered specifically accused the DNC of being "rigged." I'm not really interested in playing chase-the-goalpost (the OP has an agenda). The ...
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11
votes
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
I think there's an important distinction to be made in the examples you noted.
The left-of-center news outlets actually make an effort to call him by his chosen name of "Democratic Socialist."
The ...
- 3,944
10
votes
Accepted
Why is Bernie Sanders associated with pudding?
During the CNN debate, on the 8th Feb 2017, Ben Shapiro tweeted "Bernie Sanders WANTS HIS PUDDING AND HE WANTS IT NOW". The "joke" being that Bernie Saunders (aged 75) is old, and so likes soft, ...
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10
votes
Do I correctly understand the math behind Bernie Sanders's medicare for all financing options?
Currently, the United States spends $3.2 T/yr on healthcare, of which $2 T/yr is spent by the government and $1.2 T/yr is spent by individuals and businesses.
Under Medicare for All, all of that ...
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10
votes
Why do such a relatively high percentage of Republicans approve of Bernie Sanders?
There are many reasons why Republicans want(ed) Sanders to be a Democratic party nominee against Trump.
It is particularly easier to fight against someone who can be easily accused of being a ...
- 17.4k
9
votes
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
During the time he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Bernie Sanders referred to himself as a socialist, and was referred to that way in the press. (source: Wikipedia). In his youth, he had been a ...
- 431
9
votes
Accepted
What would Bernie Sanders look like in other political systems?
Before being able to say where Sanders would stand in other political systems, we have to determine what his position actually is.
Wikipedia has a good - and well sourced - overview:
Academic ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible