PUTNEY — For many Americans, Bernie Sanders is a new and different candidate - one marked by honesty, a commitment to justice for all, an unwillingness to campaign negatively or accept corporate money, and a fundamental belief in the possibilities of government to be a force for good.
The mainstream narrative about Bernie is that, while he is attracting huge crowds all around the country, larger than the media star Donald Trump, he can't win the nomination because everyone knows Hillary Clinton will win. Or because he is rumpled, a Vermonter from New York, or any number of other reasons having nothing to do with the reality that the people of this country live.
Many millions of people in the United States have had their fill of the corporate domination of our politics. We have had enough of the acceptance of large-scale childhood poverty, crumbling infrastructure, huge college debt, a climate-change policy with federal support of all the odious new gas pipelines and Arctic drilling, continuing racial injustice, and so many other symptoms of warped priorities.
The first statewide race Bernie won for Vermont's lone congressional seat in 1990 was hard fought - many doubted his ability to win the seat, and many said he would be ineffective as a progressive independent.
Vermont is not a microcosm of the entire country, but it is possible that people in every state see the crises we face right now and understand that Republicans à la the Bush family and centrist Democrats have failed us, and that a new kind of vision is needed.
Many of us will be working for Bernie in New Hampshire. Please join us!