Feel the Bern!(COMMENT) (presidential candidate Bernie Sanders) (Essay)

• Author: Conniff, Ruth

In July, Senator Bernie Sanders drew 10,000 people to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin--the biggest turnout any 2016 presidential candidate had seen so far. Afewweeks later, he drew 11,000 people to the convention center in Phoenix.

The size and enthusiasm of Sanders's crowds--waving "Feel the Bern" signs and hanging on the candidate's every word-shows how hungry people are for a true progressive politics.

Sanders started his speech in Madison by making fun of state Republicans who put up a billboard calling him an "extremist," and he riffed on what extremism really means.

"Denying workers collective bargaining rights is extremism," Bernie said.

"When you tell a woman she cannot control her own body, that's extremism."

Indeed.

If the Tea Party can propel retrograde, immigrant-bashing, austerity-pushing politics in the Republican primary, why shouldn't Sanders's calls for overwhelmingly popular causes like universal health care gain traction among Democrats?

The Independent, socialist Senator from Vermont attributes the large crowds he's been drawing to popular anxiety about the disappearing middle class and increasing inequality. "We are seeing the rebirth of a strong, national progressive movement," he says.

"People are anxious to hear the truth," says Sanders. "The American people are sick and tired of a political and economic system that benefits the wealthy and powerful. It's grotesque that the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent."

Among his proposals: raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, rebuilding America's infrastructure, withdrawing from trade deals that disadvantage American workers, and making college tuition free.

As the Sanders phenomenon catches fire, there has been a predictable stream of derisive coverage in the mainstream press: How can he possibly compete with Hillary Clinton's money, star power, and establishment credibility? Who does he think he is?

Almost as soon as he announced his presidential bid, the usually congenial Gail Collins interviewed Sanders and wrote a column in The New York Times mocking him for refusing to admit he has no chance to win.

This trap is familiar to progressive contenders, from Ralph Nader to Dennis Kucinich. If they say they actually think they could be President, they are portrayed as liars or fools. If they say otherwise, their campaigns are instantly over.

To a local reporter in Wisconsin who asked Sanders how he could...