I'm celebrating the only two Senators who voted against the "Freedom" Act [1] and supported net neutrality [2]. Both also voted against the "Patriot" Act in 2001, while they served in the House [3]:
Sanders won't win, but it will be nice to be able to vote for someone I don't hate for once. In an ideal world it would be Rand Paul/Bernie Sanders race. Two people who actually believe what they are saying.
Keep on dreaming. Libertarians are notoriously hostile towards former Democrats, when Mike Gravel (famous for reading the Pentagon Papers on the Senate floor) tried to switch from Democratic party to Libertarian for the presidential race in 2008, he was ridiculed for being "too socialist", but when Gary Johnson (former NM governor) ran for president on the Libertarian ticket 4 years later on the exact same platform, he got the full support of the party.
While they may coincide on a few issues, I don't see enough policy overlap between a right-libertarian who is at least as solidly the former as the latter, like Rand, and a democratic socialist, like Sanders. Maybe they both believe what they are saying, but they believe radically different things when it comes to the role and ideal policies of government.
While I really appreciate Rand Paul's efforts against the Patriot Act, I've also seen some crazy talk from him, like the claim that universal health care would lead to slavery. It's fine if you think it's a bad idea, but unhinged rhetoric like that severely undermines your credibility.
I realize that unhinged rhetoric is part of the toxic political culture in the US, and almost all US politicians are guilty of similar bizarre polemic, but from what I've seen, Bernie Sanders actually seems to be a rare exception to this. Might he actually be an honest politician? It's hard to believe one really exists, but he gives me hope.
I thought I heard earlier this week that Sanders voted to block Rand's motion to halt hearing on the bill (so it would expire). Now he voted against it?
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) & Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
[1] http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_c...
[2] http://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/us-senator-tamm... & http://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/to-protect-...
[3] http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2001/roll398.xml