Bernie Sanders

Arguably, nothing Sanders says to a thundering applause in this church on the edge of Harlem in New York could be conceived of as radical – and yet, it is with the notion of radicalism that political pundits equate his leftist ideologies, as well as discredit him.

But his ideas, his challenging statements and the rhetorical questions asked with a crooked finger and an air of incredulous annoyance, are not new.

Their foundations are in the United States Constitution, in speeches by prominent figures like Dr King and past presidents, in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”