Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes


Explore the life, political journey, and lasting influence of Bernie Sanders — American independent senator, progressive leader, and two-time presidential contender. Discover his biography, key achievements, political philosophy, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Bernard “Bernie” Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician, independent U.S. Senator from Vermont, and long-standing figure in progressive politics.

Though he is formally an independent, Sanders has had a major impact on the Democratic Party and on U.S. political discourse, especially on issues of economic inequality, healthcare reform, climate justice, and campaign finance.

Early Life and Family

Bernie Sanders was born on September 8, 1941, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

His father, Elias Ben Yehuda “Ben” Sanders, was a Polish Jewish immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in the 1920s and worked as a paint salesman. His mother, Dorothy Sanders (née Glassberg), was born in New York and worked in a variety of clerical jobs.

Growing up in Midwood, Brooklyn, Sanders attended public schools and Hebrew school on afternoons. He had an older brother, Larry Sanders.

His upbringing was modest. While his family could meet basic needs, they lived with limited means, and Sanders often recounts how early experiences shaped his sense of economic justice.

Education & Early Activism

After high school, Sanders studied at Brooklyn College and later transferred to the University of Chicago, graduating around 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts.

While in Chicago, he became active in civil rights and campus activism. He joined or collaborated with organizations like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

One notable protest saw him and others occupy the office of the university president to challenge segregated campus housing policies, which led to arrests and controversies.

These early experiences shaped his worldview: the link between structural inequalities, race, and economic justice became central themes in his future career.

Political Beginnings & Mayoral Years

Joining Third-Party and Local Politics

Articles by the author

Difficult times often bring out the best in people.

Bernie Sanders

Vermonters often ask me whether I am pessimistic about the future of our country. My honest answer is that I am not.

Bernie Sanders

Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent - a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice - that struggle continues.

Bernie Sanders

There are very powerful and wealthy special interests who want to privatize or dismember virtually every function that government now performs, whether it is Social Security, Medicare, public education or the Postal Service.

Bernie Sanders

When I talk about democratic socialist, I am talking about Medicare, a single payer health care system for the elderly. And in my view, we should expand that concept to all people. I believe that everybody in this country should be entitled to health care as a right.

Bernie Sanders

If the goal of health-care reform is to provide comprehensive, universal health care in a cost-effective way, the only honest approach is a single-payer approach.

Bernie Sanders

It has become clear that the function of a private health insurance is to make as much money as possible. Every dollar not paid out in claims is another dollar made in profits for the company.

Bernie Sanders

We all remember the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. What is less well known is that BP is claiming a 9.9 billion tax deduction on the money they had to spend cleaning up their own mess and paying for damages they caused. That is absurd.

Bernie Sanders

Ted Kennedy will go down in history as one of the giants of the U.S. Senate and one the most accomplished legislators in American history.

Bernie Sanders

If we are serious about moving toward energy independence in a cost-effective way, we should invest in solar energy. If we are serious about cutting air and water pollution and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we should invest in solar energy.

Bernie Sanders

The cost of college education today is so high that many young people are giving up their dream of going to college, while many others are graduating deeply in debt.

Bernie Sanders

Good environmental policy is good economic policy.

Bernie Sanders

I see a future where states compete with one another to see which can be the most efficient, and where businesses seek out efficient states in which to locate so they can reap the economic and environmental benefits for their businesses and employees.

Bernie Sanders

Clinton understands that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and is one of the great environmental crises facing our planet. She knows that we must transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and move aggressively to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

Bernie Sanders

I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage in terms of what may happen in the future.

Bernie Sanders

The history of American democracy, to say the least, has been checkered. Our nation was founded at a time when people of African descent were held in bondage. After slavery was abolished, they were forced to endure legal discrimination for another 100 years.

Bernie Sanders

In 2009, UnitedHealth, a leading insurance company, paid $350 million to settle lawsuits brought by the American Medical Association and other physician groups for shortchanging consumers and physicians for medical services outside its preferred network.

Bernie Sanders

Today the biggest problem in caring for those with AIDS is no longer mainly a medical or scientific problem. The crisis is access to affordable drugs.

Bernie Sanders

Finally, let us understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win.

Bernie Sanders

I am a socialist; of course I am a socialist. To hold a vision that society can be fundamentally different, to believe that all people can be equal - that is not a new idea.

Bernie Sanders