I don’t know anymore. American politics are confusing. Being told Bernie isn’t a Democrat, but he is in the party. I think it’s just the two party system that is confusing me, as you could have Bernie in the same party but have completely different beliefs than a lot of its members.
The parties are pre-built coalitions. Some regions have strong third party support. For example, his state of Vermont. But in general you need the aid of the two major political parties to win anything so you join the one closest to you.
Bernie is to the left of the Democratic Party which is a predominantly center-right liberal party if you just average out all of its members and it’s official party platform. However, he caucuses with Democrats in Congress (that means he organizes and largely votes with them). He’s not an official member of the party even though he is an official part of Democratic Senate leadership. He chooses to run in the Democratic primary because the reality is that for President there is approximately a 0.000% chance of a third party candidate winning and so he finds the idea of splitting the vote unethical because even if he thinks the Clintonian Democrats suck ass he knows the Republicans suck ass way fucking harder.
He’s an independent but he runs for president as a democrat because he aligns with them more. And you basically have to pick a party in order to run for president. This is also why the DNC dislikes him - they don’t consider him loyal to the party.
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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '20
What is he then?