Progressive Spotlight: Bernie Sanders.

At 84, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) remains among the most indefatigable elected officials in the country. For months, he’s been barnstorming the nation alongside other progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 48 years his junior, warning of the threat posed by oligarchy and massive wealth concentration in the United States.

“Today in America we are rapidly moving toward an oligarchic form of society where a handful of multibillionaires not only have extraordinary wealth, but unprecedented economic, media, and political power,” Sanders said on a stop in Iowa City back in February.

Speaking of Sanders’ Energizer Bunny stamina, he most recently headlined a rally at the beloved Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY, in support of Zohran Mamdani, who went from little-known insurgent at the end of last year to ubiquitous figure in national newspapers, comedy shows and podcasts amid his 2025 mayoral bid. 

It’s a strategy Mamdani seems to have borrowed from Sanders himself, who, despite being among the oldest-serving U.S. Senators, is a savvy operator across media platforms, with his trademark curmudgeonly laments the soundtrack for younger generations’ TikTok and Instagram feeds.

A critic of endemic media concentration, Sanders is a one-man newsroom, offering alternative insights and dispelling conventional wisdom on a range of issues, from the mundane to the existential.

To be sure, Sanders always had a skill for identifying alternative paths to communicate under-reported or obscured truths to anyone who would listen.

After multiple failed bids for elected office in the 1970s, including governor and U.S. Senate races, he took a brief hiatus and co-created a documentary about Eugene Debs, the socialist icon and five-time presidential hopeful. The narration begins by listing culturally relevant people and themes before launching into a criticism of corporate capture—a consistent theme of Sanders’ career.

“Nobody has told you about Gene Debs, one of the most important Americans of the 20th century,” the narrator says. “Why? Why haven’t they told you about Gene Debs and the ideas he fought for? The answer is simple: More than half a century after his death, the handful of people who own and control this country, including the mass media and the education system, still regard Debs as a threat to their stability and class rule, and as someone best forgotten about.”

Little about Sanders has changed—though the world around him continues to become increasingly corporatized, with wealth more concentrated than ever. It’s that reality that led Sanders, a political independent, to twice run for president in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

In both cases, Sanders sought the Democratic nomination despite considerable hostility toward him and his workers’-first platform from the establishment wing of the party, its supposedly independent apparatus and the corporate media.

Those forces appear to be at odds with the American electorate. The senator is consistently ranked one of the most popular elected officials in the country and boasts the highest favorability of any member of the U.S. Senate.

It’s easy to understand why. Sanders’ tenacious spirit and obsession with messaging have made him a transcendent figure in today’s politics—a career characterized by an incessant drive to fight for the working class.

Sanders has famously been on the front lines of various causes, including marches during the Civil Rights movement. During his first presidential campaign, a photo of Sanders being arrested in Chicago during a protest against segregation went viral. Sanders, standing between two people lying on the ground with their ankles chained, is bent over as others watch from the other side of the barricades. One man in glasses and a suit is captured staring ahead, holding a sign that reads “SEGREGATED CHICAGOLAND.”

Undeterred after multiple failed electoral bids early in his career, Sanders re-entered politics and shocked the local establishment in Burlington, VT, when he defeated a five-term incumbent by 10 votes, the slimmest of margins. 

Sanders’ insurgent win upended local politics and caught the attention of national outlets, such as the New York Times, which documented his victory: “In four unsuccessful races for Governor and United States Senator since 1970, Mr. Sanders had ruffled some feathers by attacking the political, financial, business and educational leaders of the state for directing their attention to growth and development rather than the plight of the state’s poor, politically disenfranchised and elderly residents.”

Sound familiar?

In his post-victory remarks, Sanders made clear his mayoralty would emphasize building up the disenfranchised.

“We’re coming in with a definite class analysis and a belief that the trickle-down theory of economic growth, the ‘what’s good for General Motors is good for America’ theory, doesn’t work,” the then-39-year-old Sanders said at the time.

Sanders served four terms as mayor before winning his first House race in 1990, where he was elected to eight terms until his Senate victory in 2006.

The former writer, carpenter and documentarian has left an indelible mark on American politics and culture. As the son of Polish immigrants, the Brooklyn-born Sanders has never backed down from a challenge. From fighting mega developers in Burlington to taking on Big Oil or AI oligarchs, Sanders has always been—and continues to be—unapologetic about improving the lives of the working class.

Image Sources

• Sgt. Denis Nunez, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.
• Bernie Sanders 1972 or 1976 gubernatorial campaign, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.