Bernie Sanders after crucial Senate votes: 2016 platform has 'really become mainstream'

(Image credit: Liz Lynch/Getty Images)

published 11 August 2021

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) acknowledges that back in 2016, when he was battling Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, much of his platform came with the "radical" label.

"Ideas that I talked about when I ran for president in 2016, five years ago, were considered radical, like Medicare-for-all or boldly addressing climate change or making sure that children had quality, affordable child care or demanding that the wealthy and large corporations are paying their fair share of taxes," Sanders told USA Today's Susan Page.

Now, though, he believes his ideas "have really become mainstream," at least among Democratic senators. That was perhaps mostly clearly exemplified by Senate Democrats' approval of a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget resolution which sets the stage for a final bill to pass via reconciliation later this year. Sanders, Page writes, played a significant role in the process as the Senate Budget Committe chair after historically operating on the fringes. Read more at USA Today.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.