To understand how right-wing the major political parties in America are, it helps to read the foreign press. This from The Guardian:

… [Bernie Sanders’] beliefs… would fit comfortably in the middle left of Britain’s Labour party or Germany’s SPD. But it is impossible to over-state just how much of a political death sentence being called a “socialist” – never mind actually proudly proclaiming it – usually is in America…

After all, many elected Democrats shy away from the “liberal” label out of a fear of being demonised as left-wing extremists. Yet, even though political opponents have accurately called Sanders a “red,” and the New York Times once derided him as “a strange bird out of Vermont,” Sanders has flourished.

Indeed, he says his beliefs chime far more with Americans than people think. “All I can tell you is that in every poll I have seen if you ask people: do you think the wealthiest people in this country should pay their fair share of taxes? Then the answer is: yes, they should,” he said.

He rattled off a long list of other issues in the same way, posing a question on an issue and then answering it for the voters in the affirmative: cutting excessive military spending, not cutting social security, creating well-paying jobs in America, closing corporate tax loopholes.

This list sounds familiar to anyone who’s following the Occupy movement. No wonder The New York Times isn’t calling Bernie a “strange bird” anymore.