Win or lose, Sanders seeks to transform his party and redeem American politics through an epic battle against some of the wealthiest powers in human history. “A lot of people have given up on the political process, and I want to get them involved in it,” he tells TIME. “In this fight we are going to take on the greed of the billionaire class. And they are very, very powerful, and they’re going to fight back furiously. The only way to succeed is when millions of people stand up and decide to engage.”…

It’s all about the movement, Sanders admonishes in the deep bass voice that he reserves for one-on-ones. What President Obama didn’t understand when he took office is that you have to keep your movement alive. “Barack Obama ran one of the great campaigns in American history. The biggest mistake he made is that the day after the election, in so many words, he said, ‘Thank you very much, but I will take it from here,’” Sanders says.

Then he paints one of his word pictures. Imagine President Sanders facing a vote in Congress on free college tuition paid for by a tax hike on the wealthy. He’d have to persuade Speaker of the House John Boehner to help him pass the bill. That’s where his army of activists comes in. “How do I convince John? Is my personality that much better than Barack Obama’s?” Sanders says. “The answer is to say, ‘Hey, John, take a look out your window. Because there are a million young people there that are in support of the legislation. They are voting. They know what’s going on. If you refuse to make college affordable, they’re going to vote your people out of office.’ That’s the offer you can’t refuse.”

Source: The Gospel of Bernie | TIME

I like the way Bernie Sanders thinks. He is definitely a forward looker whereas most in the other party are primarily looking backwards. But I guess that is the primary difference between the two parties.  One is conservative and wants to keep everything like it is or maybe was in the past.  They fear change will disrupt things and cause it all to collapse.  The other party is progressive. That is they think that we must always be moving forward to better future.  One party looks forward and the other looks backward.

Bernie, being from Vermont, is all about town halls and power to the people. That is the history of that area of the country.  I traveled through Vermont on a couple of occasions but never spent enough time there to get the feel of the people. But I know from my history lessons that they practiced a very basic form of democracy where each person had a say in things.  That seems to be the way Bernie sees it.  I like his bolded quote above about Barack Obama.  His “I’ll take it from here” attitude is where he got it wrong. He simply did not keep that gigantic coalition active enough.  Bernie says he will.

Being a realist I know that the odds of the country quickly turning to socialistic principles is a long shot but maybe Bernie’s presence on the national political stage will at least nudge us a little closer to every citizen having power in our society.