BERNIE

The only graphic biography of the presidential contender out in time for the Democratic debates.

Bernie Sanders puzzles the establishment. A self-identified socialist, long affiliated with neither the Democratic nor Republican parties, from the tiny state of Vermont, Sanders has been relentlessly marginalized and ridiculed by the national political power brokers and the media that supports them.
And yet here he is, barely a month into his campaign against the "inevitable" Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he is already posing a credible threat to her in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two first, very important, primary contests. Not to mention, he's doing it on a shoestring budget.

The Sanders story is about the credibility that, ironically, derives from years of marginalization. As progressives and liberals who once formed the base of the Democratic Party look for an alternative to Clinton's corporate-friendly, war-mongering policies, Sanders is perfectly positioned to step into the vacuum.

Ted Rall's Bernie explores the personal and political development of a man who threatens to shake up the 2016 presidential campaign, redefine the left wing of the Democratic Party, and, win or lose, set a new benchmark for a revived progressivism within a party that has rejected it for half a century.