A self-described democratic socialist, many commentators and pundits have noted the consistency of his views throughout his political career. Sanders has focused on economic issues such as income and wealth inequality, expanding Social Security benefits, implementing universal healthcare, making public colleges and universities tuition-free by taxing financial transactions, raising the minimum wage, and reducing the burden of student debt.
Sanders is a prominent supporter of laws requiring companies to provide their workers paternity leave, sick leave, and vacation time, noting that such laws have been adopted by almost every developed country. Sanders advocates bold initiatives to reverse global warming and infrastructure investment in the United States and is opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Sanders has advocated for more democratic participation by citizens, campaign finance reform and the overturn of Citizens United. He has decried institutional racism, called for criminal justice reform to reduce the number of people in prison, advocates a crackdown on police brutality, and abolishing private, for-profit prisons.
He is an advocate of comprehensive financial reforms and favors breaking up “too big to fail” financial institutions and restoring Glass–Steagall.
Sanders was a strong opponent of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and has been critical of a number of policies instituted during the War on Terror, particularly mass surveillance and the USA PATRIOT Act.
He takes a liberal approach to social issues, advocating for LGBT rights such as same-sex marriage and lobbying against the Defense of Marriage Act, and maintains a pro-choice stance on abortion, opposing the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
In the clip below, Rachel Maddow traces the political history of Bernie Sanders, from small city mayor of Burlington, Vermont to Congressman, Senator and upstart presidential candidate, all while staying consistent on a core set of issues.
Note: Portions of this article were collected from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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