{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/092917", "September 29", "2017-09-29", "2017", "2017-09", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "September 29\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tFriday, September 29, 2017\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSanders\u2019 Relative Died Defying Nazis\u00a0In the upcoming season premiere of the PBS series \u201cFinding Your Roots,\u201d Bernie Sanders does more than look at a printout of his family tree: He gets emotional when he discovers a relative died while standing up to the Nazis during World War II,\u00a0Jewish Telegraphic Agency\u00a0and\u00a0Forward\u00a0reported.\u00a0\r\nSanders Meets With Palestinian Activist\u00a0Sanders met on Wednesday with Issa Amro, a leading Palestinian activist from the West Bank, who is facing trial in Israel and was also recently arrested by the Palestinian Authority for criticizing its leadership,\u00a0Haaretzand\u00a0Middle East Monitor\u00a0reported.\r\nSanders Opened Foreign Policy Debate\u00a0Sanders speech indeed opened a new debate and offered the first steps towards a fundamentally different policy, but it also leaves many questions unanswered. It elevated some new challenges to Democratic Party thinking, though not always with policies to match,\u00a0The Nation\u00a0reported.\r\nMost Americans Desperate for Third Party\u00a0More Americans than ever\u201461 percent\u2014say the Democratic and Republican parties are inadequate and the U.S. should have a third major political party, a\u00a0new poll from Gallup\u00a0shows. It\u2019s not shocking Sanders, an independent, is\u00a0the most popular politician in the U.S. But Sanders has\u00a0rejected calls to form a third party\u00a0in recent months, saying his best avenue to have a real impact is via the current structure and the Democratic Party,\u00a0Newsweek\u00a0reported.\u00a0\u00a0\r\nJulia Louis-Dreyfus Argues for Universal Health Care\u00a0Actress and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus made an unexpected entrance into America's health-care debate Thursday, announcing that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and urging her supporters to \"make universal health care a reality.\" Democrats in the Senate are increasingly rallying behind universal health care. A third of the Senate Democratic caucus has signed onto a bill proposed by Sanders, that would institute a nationwide \"Medicare-for-all\" system, Sanders said this month,\u00a0CNBC\u00a0reported.\u00a0\r\nBerniecrats Have Obama Problem\u00a0The ideological vanguard of the Sanders movement emerged from the 2016 election overflowing with dialectical certainty. Hillary Clinton\u2019s narrow win in the primary was the last gasp of a dying neoliberal order, the overthrow of which is now preordained. This confidence comes through in a short column by Alex Pareene, which asserts that my brand of liberalism is irreversibly dying,\u00a0New York Magazine\u00a0reported.\r\nSanders Traveling to Atlanta\u00a0Sanders is headed to Atlanta this week to back former State Sen. Vincent Fort in the race to become the city\u2019s next mayor,\u00a0Atlanta Black Star\u00a0reported.\r\nBernie Backers Give Dems a 2018 Pass\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s some reluctance to put a lot of time into [unseating Democrats], versus [building] a more progressive Congress overall,\u201d said former Communications Workers of America union president Larry Cohen, a top Bernie Sanders advisor who now chairs the board of the Our Revolution political group that was spawned from the senator\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot more activity where it\u2019s possible to change the makeup of the Congress,\u201d\u00a0Politico\u00a0reported.\r\nCNN to Host Pelosi Town Hall\u00a0CNN announced a second town hall event featuring House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The event will provide a public forum for voters to question Pelosi.\u00a0Previous 2017 CNN town halls have included Pelosi,\u00a0Sanders, House Speaker\u00a0Paul Ryan,, a Democratic leadership debate and a debate between Sanders and Sen.\u00a0Ted Cruz, former Vice President\u00a0Al Gore, and others,\u00a0The Hill\u00a0reported.\u00a0\r\nClinton\u2019s Interview with Joan Walsh\u00a0Joan Walsh pressed Clinton on her book\u2019s admission that she learned from Sanders\u2019s primary challenge that Democrats had to offer \u201clofty goals that people can organize around and dream about [and] redouble our efforts to develop bold, creative ideas that offer broad based benefits for the whole country,\u201d\u00a0The Nation\u00a0reported.\u00a0\u00a0\r\nCalifornians Divided on Single-Payer\u00a0Californians are divided on whether to substantially increase government involvement through a single-payer system, such as the \"Medicare for All\" proposal recently introduced by Sanders. A national single-payer insurance program such as \"Medicare for All\" gets support from 35% of Californians, according to the poll. Support is higher among Democrats \u2014 44% \u2014 and independents \u2014 34% \u2014 than among Republicans. Only 6% of Republicans back such a system,\u00a0Los Angeles Timesreported.\r\nCalifornia Makes Trump Re-Election Difficult\u00a0The state's Democratic-controlled legislature wrapped up its 2017 session this month by sending three bills to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown (D) that could significantly influence Trump's reelection chances, how closely he guards his tax returns and his ability to deliver on one of his central campaign promises \u2014 to deport more immigrants who are in the country illegally. California has tried to move up its primary for two decades, but other states have just jumped ahead. In 2011, the state basically gave up and Brown signed a bill moving it back to June. But in 2016, the state's Democratic voters didn't even get a say in who won their party's nomination. Hillary Clinton found out she had clinched the nomination over Sanders hours before California voters were about to cast ballots,\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0reported.\u00a0\r\nColumn: GOP Has Lost Its Mind\u00a0Distressed Republicans and ex-Republicans have three options \u2014 recruit new non-Trumpkins to the GOP (but which Americans would want to join?!) to out-vote Trump\u2019s base; start a new center-right party (with an invitation out to moderate Democrats); or set up shop across the aisle as the new Blue Dog Democrats. Much depends on the direction the Democrats take (will it be the party of Sanders or the party of Truman/JFK/Bill Clinton \u2014 policy-wise, that is),\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0reported.\r\nColumn: American Democracy Descends Into Hysteria\u00a0\u201cDuring last year\u2019s campaign, I described Bernie Sanders as the \u201chigh road\u201d to fundamental change, while Donald Trump owned the \u201clow road.\u201d It may take several election cycles to determine which road the country embraces\u2014if it doesn\u2019t choose a path very different from either,\u201d William Greider wrote for\u00a0The Nation.\u00a0\r\nColumn: Dems Can Get a Clue On Foreign Policy\u00a0\u201cThere are signs that some in the party at least are beginning to get a clue. In a major speech at Westminster College, Bernie Sanders outlined a vision of foreign policy that would address the failures of recent history while providing a path for America to use its power honorably,\u201d Ryan Cooper wrote for\u00a0The Week.\u00a0\r\nColumn: Medicare For All Is a Bad Idea\u00a0\u201cSanders, the independent senator from Vermont, can't stop talking about\u00a0Medicare For All\u00a0which he says will finally solve all of America's health insurance problems. In fact, creating a national single-payer plan is a truly terrible idea that will likely bankrupt the country, drive down the rate of health-care innovation, AND not really improve health outcomes,\u201d Nick Gillespie wrote for\u00a0Reason.\u00a0\r\nColumn: Sanders Takes Foreign Policy Seriously\u00a0\u201cSanders stresses the virtues of multilateral action at the United Nations and people-to-people diplomacy. He makes it clear that a progressive foreign policy requires promoting progressive values at home as well as broad. When he says, \u201cWe must rethink the old Washington mind-set that judges \u2018seriousness\u2019 according to the willingness to use force,\u201d I can imagine Sen. Rand Paul devotees nodding along in sympathy,\u201d\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0reported.\r\nColumn: Sanders\u2019 Medicare Bad Idea\u00a0\u201cOf course, precisely because of deadweight losses, it is lunacy for us to be bankrolling Medicare expenses for people such as Warren Buffett and his wife,\u201d Chris Conover wrote for\u00a0Fortune.\r\nColumn: Morality Can Still Win\u00a0\u201cJeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders and Podemos in Spain have shown that a bold and decent strategy can be a successful one. That truth should embolden the left,\u201d Naomi Klein wrote for\u00a0The Guardian.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/092917"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0653740502893925, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}