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Roll Call has just reported that Vermont independent Jim Jeffords will announce his retirement from the Senate this afternoon. The frontrunner to replace him--Socialist congressman Bernie Sanders, though the GOP has been gaining at the state level in recent years in Vermont.
The last candidate elected to the Senate from a party other than the Dems or Repubs came in New York in 1970, when Conservative James Buckley upset Democratic congressman Richard Ottinger and the liberal GOP incumbent, Charles Goodell.
Jason --
There is no question that the sliding scale favors conservative centrism, as opposed to liberal centrism, but the closeness of recent elections surely indicates that this is not etched in stone.
Were I Miami or San Fran, I'd be dying to trade out of that 1-2 slot, but I would surmise that Ralph and KC (justifiably) might not appreciate us highjacking this thread and turning it into an NFL draft discussion. I might have an open post on Rebunk tomorrow.
dc
Anthony Paul Smith -
4/20/2005
Let's think about what percentage of the population voted that was eliegable before we decide that the right is a huge populist movement. Further, you have to take into account the last time we didn't re-elect a president during wartime. Or you can make claims without any support, which you seem to be good at.
Jason Nelson -
4/20/2005
Derek-
I would present as exhibit A of my evidence the record of success of the Republicans in the last several elections. I know this is a debatable position, this is how I see it. If "progresivism" was so cool, then Dean would have been the nominee. In my opinion, Kerry spent far more time trying to sell to the bulk of America that he was more like Bush than Bush did trying to convince America that he was more like Kerry.
I do not know enough about Bernie to say he is a socialist, I was playing off of the original post, entitled _a Socialist Senator_? Im just saying that if he is, it would not spell doom for America, just contribute to the floudering of the Democrats.
To Mr. Proyect: would you prefer it if he was a real socialist? I'm just asking.
PS Im getting hyped about the NFL draft this weekend.
Anthony Paul Smith -
4/20/2005
And don't get me started on the health care in France. I had to wait ten minutes before someone would see me about my stomach ache. TEN MINUTES! I could have died.
David Timothy Beito -
4/20/2005
Perhaps.....I haven't been keeping up closely with Bernie's doings.
Louis N Proyect -
4/20/2005
The operative word is "supported". As in past tense. Whittaker Chambers supported the USSR. David Horowitz supported the Black Panther Party. John Kerry supported resistance to imperialist war. And history marches on.
Brian Ulrich -
4/20/2005
If the GOP thought that was a viable PR strategy, they could do it now with him in the House.
Louis N Proyect -
4/20/2005
Bernie Sanders is *not* a socialist. Years ago when he was the Mayor of Burlington, he used to describe himself as a socialist. So did Christopher Hitchens around the same time. Nowadays, Sanders votes for imperialist war and never utters a word about socialism. As the playwright said, "that was in another country and besides the wench is dead."
Adam Kotsko -
4/20/2005
I'm sure that the American public would be reluctant to trade in their current free-market system for the socialist nightmare of Scandinavia. They say the gulags of Norway are even crueler than those of Stalin -- and let's not even get started on the sheer oppression that the brave Danes have had to withstand for lo these many decades.
Derek Charles Catsam -
4/20/2005
Jason --
I'm not certain that Sanders is a socialist in anything but name. I also am quite certain that when you assert that most Americans are "center right" you need some evidence of it. I'd say most Americans are center, to be sure, but on many issues they veer what we might call left, on others right. I'm not certain that while in office Sanders has been all that far away from the mainstream on most issues.
dc
Jason Nelson -
4/20/2005
I agree with Mr. Kotsko, it would be wonderful. The American public would get to see a Socialist Senator voting with the Democrats on a regular basis. This would be a good opportunity to educate the public that if America follows many of the "progressive" ideas coming from some of the Democrats to their logical conclusion, a Socialist country could result. Since I am a strong believer that the bulk of America is center-right, I would predict that a Socialist Senator would have a more detrimental effect on the left than it would on the right. Go Bernie!
David Timothy Beito -
4/20/2005
Sanders is not just a socialist, at least not in the Norman Thomas or Michael Harrington sense. He supported the presidential candidate hard-left and Marxist Socialist Workers Party.
Adam Kotsko -
4/20/2005
I'm sure he would be demonized, but people are demonized for believing in progressive taxation nowadays.
