I love Bernie Sanders. That’s pretty common to hear from the crowd that is well left of center. And with good reason. Bernie Sanders is the most liberal “mainstream” Presidential candidate we’ve seen in quite a while.

While I love Bernie Sanders, I don’t think he has much chance of winning the nomination and should he somehow win the nomination, I don’t think he has much chance of beating whoever the Republicans put up. Unless the Republicans put up someone really off the wall. Which kind of describes the majority of the current Republican candidates. Who I also think have little chance of getting nominated.

But I think Bernie Sanders will be very good for the Democratic party and for the Presidential race in general. For too long, the accepted ideals have been moving further and further right. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama certainly sit well right of JFK and RFK. Well right! George W Bush was right of Reagan, and well right of Eisenhower and Ford.

With Sanders entering the race, the discussion is going to focus much more on important issues like the social safety net, social security, medicare/medicaid, and minimum wage. The right won’t be able to get away with their cute little quips and false statements about welfare queens, the 47%, and all the other assorted lies the right likes to tell us (over and over and over, until many accept it as fact). Sanders has lots and lots of facts up in his head. He’s not going to sit still while Republicans make up their latest “big lies.”

Sanders will also force the party to focus more on an inward looking agenda instead of the usual beat of the war drums. Make no mistake about it. Barack Obama is a gigantic improvement over George W Bush. But he is still quick to use military force and quick to use drones to solve problems. I see Sanders attacking this strategy and blowing holes in the false narratives about the true danger of radical islamic terrorists. By doing that, I think the entire populace and certainly the candidates, will be forced to address those issues and either show their more liberal side, or quickly get labeled “right wing ideologues.”

That’s my hope, anyway. Bernie Sanders is a liberal’s dream when it comes to politicians. He is smart, articulate, fearless, and sarcastic. He is very much for the little guy and really doesn’t care about what big banks and big business think about that. What’s not to like?