2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: If Bernie is not accepted here as a Democrat [View all]BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)himself a Democratic Socialist (Socialist) and not a Social Democrat (which is the ideology of the Democratic Party and Democrats). He's to the left in some things of the Democratic Party, but he's NO Paul Wellstone.
Senator Wellstone and Rep. Sanders debated H.R. 629, the 1997 Texas-Vermont-Maine Compact, the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Consent Act and Senator Wellstone was one of that bill's biggest detractors. That bill would dump low-level nuclear waste from Maine, Vermont, and Texas nearby a predominantly Spanish-speaking Mexican-American community: Sierra Blanca.
In 1998, Paul Wellstone decried the dump as "part of a 'national pattern of discrimination in the location of waste and pollution' that preyed on those lacking political clout and financial resources." Sanders was a staunch supporter. Thanks to the Sierra Club, the bill got a lot of nationwide exposure and although it passed, Texas officials denied the necessary licenises to build the establishment of the Sierra Blanca dump site.
Just as an aside? Bernie himself has stated, in 1985, that he's not now and has never been a Liberal Democrat. He said this thirty years ago. Today, he says he's not a Democrat. He just caucuses with Democrats. Or is he lying?