By Staff Writer Timothy Howard.

Yesterday Bernie Sanders’ new book Where We Go From Here was released in bookstores across America. Quite apropos given that he is almost assuredly going to be a contender in the democratic primary for 2020. In his new book, Sen. Sanders discusses various moments he experienced from June of 2016 to the present day. His book begins with his struggle to claw the Democratic party platform to the left during the 2016 campaign. Sanders discusses his dealings with Hillary Clinton and what he believes doomed her campaign.  

He moves on to discuss what he has been up to since President Trump took office. A large part of the book is devoted to laying out Sen. Sanders’ recent policy achievements and how he has taken a stance at the forefront of “the resistance” to the Trump administration. Some of his most notable accolades include the “Stop Walmart Act” and his work rallying support for progressive candidates in the build up to 2018 midterm elections. The following passage from Where We Go From Here emphasizes the political philosophy Sen. Sanders has been stresses throughout the book.  

“During my campaign for president in 2016, I stated over and over again that the future of our country was dependent upon our willingness to make a political revolution. I stressed that real change never occurs from the top down. It always happens from the bottom up. No real change in American history—not the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay rights movement, the environmental movement, nor any other movement for social justice—has ever succeeded without grassroots activism, without millions of people engaged in the struggle for justice.”  

As alluded to above, in 2016 Sanders ran an unsuccessful race for the democratic nomination for president. However, his loss to Hillary Clinton was a defeat in name only as he rocketed from unknown independent to celebrity status within the democratic field. Sandees is now the most popular politician in America. (Newsweek) With a ravenous base of supporters and an ever growing influence in the party, Sanders has the political infrastructure to mount a much better showing than that of his marginal defeat in 2016. 

This book effectively serves as a guide to the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign. If he decides to run, one can almost guarantee that a majority of his talking points and arguments will have derived from much of the framework he laid out in Where We Go From Here. The question now is whether or not Sanders can retain the electric momentum of his 2016 campaign and use that energy to propel himself out of the crowded 2020 field and into the White House.  

“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.” ~ Sen. Bernie Sanders.