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Bernie Sanders' Impassioned Closing Statements

by Melanie Schmitz

Despite a short field of only three candidates, the second Democratic primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday night proved to be more more exciting than expected. Delving into issues like gun control and the recent attacks in Paris, France, moderator John Dickerson pushed each candidate for their respective thoughts on heavy issues, in an attempt to expose the differences between them and give voters a better understanding of the people for whom they might potentially be casting a vote. Of the three candidates, however, it was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' closing statements that left a lasting impression on the undecided, something that will undoubtedly give him a boost in the polls over the next few weeks.

Sanders has come a long way since the early days of his campaign, climbing from indisputable underdog to Hillary Clinton's biggest threat. Even in states where Clinton holds a notable lead — such as in South Carolina, where Clinton leads Sanders by a whopping 54 percent of the prospective vote, according to a Public Policy Poll released this week — the fact that a fringe candidate who self-identifies as a Democratic Socialist has even breached the 15 percent mark is saying something.

"People have gotten to know him as Bernie, [but] not as the Socialist," fellow Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy told The New York Times in an interview back in 2007, long before Sanders' 2016 dreams had even begun to take root. According to Leahy, it was Vermont's willingness to see past the partisan quibbling and understand Sanders's eccentricities that helped secure the senator's spot in Washington for so many years. Now, that same impassioned energy and similar public intrigue could believably carry him to the White House.

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Certainly, that seems to be the case at present. According to a McMcClatchy-Marist poll out this week, Sanders led Republican candidate Donald Trump by a margin of 12 percentage points, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by 10. "We started this campaign at three percent, five percent in the polls," Sanders told CBS' Jim Axelrod in an interview on November 8. "Nobody thought that we could win in New Hampshire, win in Iowa, and yet we're doing well in both of those states, and we're doing well around the country — we're in this race to win it."

On Saturday night, that same trademark zeal and Sanders' appetite for change closed out the Drake University debate with a bang, as the senator hammered home the need for a revolution — one that needed to be lead by the people for it to truly matter:

This country today, has more income and wealth inequality than any major country on earth. We have a corrupt campaign finance system, dominated by super PACs. We are the only major country on earth that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all people. We have the highest rate of child poverty. And we are the only country in the world—virtually the only country in the world— that doesn't guarantee paid family and medical leave. That's not the America that I think we should be!
But in order to bring about the changes that we need, we need a political revolution. Millions of people are gonna have to stand up, turn off the TV, get involved in the political process, and tell the big money interests that we are taking back out country. Please go to BernieSanders.com. Please become part of the political revolution. Thank you.