Timing is everything, so the saying goes. For Bernie Sanders, the timing could not be better. Polls have The Bern up in both Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s had major profiles in news magazines. Now, he’s got the endorsement of The Nation, the nation’s oldest news magazine — and probably its most left-oriented publication. (It could be a tie with American Prospect.) So it may not exactly be a surprise that the most successful socialist presidential contender since Eugene V. Debs (although The Bern might not really be a socialist, more like a “democratic socialist,” if you take your ideological definitions seriously) would receive The Nation’s support.
It’s only a surprise in that the magazine rarely endorses: in its 150 year history, it has only endorsed two others, Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008. Which makes its Sanders endorsement another historic first: The Bern’s the first white guy to be endorsed by The Nation! Here’s the endorsement, in part:
“Bernie Sanders and his supporters are bending the arc of history toward justice. Theirs is an insurgency, a possibility, and a dream that we proudly endorse.”
