By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--October 10, 2016
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders barnstormed Michigan Thursday to urge his loyal supporters to rally behind Democrat Hillary Clinton for president, but he wouldn’t say marking the ballot for a third-party candidate would be a wasted vote. In an interview before his fourth speech of the day, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont declined to adopt the emerging talking point of some Democratic Party leaders that a vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson would effectively help elect Republican Donald Trump.
“I don’t want to go there, because I have run as a third-party candidate myself in the state of Vermont,” Sanders told The Detroit News. “Historically, third parties have played a very important role in bringing out ideas that were ahead of their times, (that) the mainstream politicians adopt 20 years later. I don’t want to go that route.” Instead, Sanders listed the government programs and progressive agenda Clinton would pursue if elected the nation’s 45th president: free tuition for middle-class students attending public universities and colleges; a hike in the minimum wage; pay equity for women; and an ambitious effort to rein in money in politics. “I talked to her last week. She promised me that within the first 100 days of her administration, if she’s president, she’ll bring forth a constitutional amendment to overturn this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision,” Sanders said. “That’s a big deal.”Now just to be accurate in how we present this, Sanders only commented on the question of voting third-party because he was asked by a reporter. And you can understand why a guy who ran and won as a third-party candidate himself wouldn't want to trash the idea entirely. His tact, instead, was to make the case that Hillary is so committed to massive growth in the government that anyone giving a third-party candidate any consideration should recognize she is more than left-wing enough to satisfy their needs.
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