Bernie Sanders has reissued his 1997 political biography, Outsider in the House, with an optimistic new title. The senator from Vermont and challenger to Hillary Clinton makes many common sense points. Politics is serious, he reminds us, yet many Americans would rather be entertained to death. He hopes enough people care more for ideas than image. Sanders’ own career as a socialist mayor, congressman and U.S. senator illustrates the possibility of building a grassroots movement for progress, but this happened in one state, Vermont, not the United States. In a new afterward, Madison columnist John Nichols sounds a hopeful note by reminding readers that no one thought Sanders could leap from the House of Representatives into the U.S. Senate—except Sanders.
