Aug 22, 2015 2 min read

For decades, a recurring theme in my letters to the editor has been that fear and ignorance of socialism by both major political parties is the principal problem in the United States. It was the irrational reason for our war against Vietnam and why today we lack health care for everyone at half the cost, lack adequate protection of the environment, and lack economic justice.

Simply by running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is dispelling that fear and ignorance, with stunning results.

A socialist, his campaign has been enthusiastically received in his hometown of Burlington, Vt., a community forever associated with America’s most important philosopher, educator, and social democrat, John Dewey, and in similarly progressive cities: Madison, Wisc., Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Ore. and Los Angeles.

But more significant is the excitement he is generating in purple and red states.

A Sanders campaign event in Council Bluffs, Iowa on July 3 drew the largest audience for any 2016 presidential candidate in that important early caucus state. In Portland, Maine, a city of only 66,000, what had been scheduled as a town hall forum drew an estimated crowd of 8,000 to 9,000 people on July 6. And on July 18, Sanders drew a crowd of over 11,000 people in Phoenix, Ariz., a typically conservative state.

An Aug. 12 poll conducted by Franklin Pierce University and the Boston Herald shows Sanders leading Hillary Clinton 44 percent to 37 percent in New Hampshire among Democratic primary voters. A political revolution is unfolding and usually acute observers of the political scene are dismissing it. Ralph Nader calls Sanders “a lone ranger” and Noam Chomsky thinks, even if elected president, Sanders could accomplish nothing, echoing Nader.

Twenty-first century socialism is 100 percent American, its history and cultural foundations Native American, something only Sanders among these brilliant sons of immigrants has sensed through the haze of outdated Eurocentric ideas widely reviled in Europe today. More and more people will find Bernie Sanders dedicated to their interests,

Jim Greenwood

Washington