Photograph by Eli Durst for The New York Times The New York Times Magazine 31
Fueling their anxieties was an apparently bottomless trove of provoca-
tive videos. Sanders in Moscow during the Cold War, praising the Soviet
Union’s mass- transit system. Sanders proposing a cap on individual wealth.
Sanders expressing admiration for the literacy program introduced by Fidel
Castro. When we talked in February, he pointed out to me that most if not
all of these statements dated to before he was elected to Congress, back
when he was ‘‘a reasonably young man.’’ (In the case of Castro’s literacy
program, however, Sanders doubled down on the compliment last month,
telling ‘‘60 Minutes’’: ‘‘He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad
thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?’’) I asked if it was fair to say that he
had undergone a philosophical evolution since then. ‘‘Of course I have,’’ he
said. ‘‘Look, what human being doesn’t undergo changes?’’ He added, ‘‘If
you’re not a moron, you learn.’’
Sanders spoke as if this were a given. At the same time, the man
so often described by his campaign ads and senior staff members as
‘‘authentic’’ and ‘‘consistent’’ seemed content to live and die by his rep-
utation for being as immutable as gravity. Nearly all his current and
former aides have perfected an impersonation of his thudding Brook-
lynese. He is understood to be a loner, a constant if not deep thinker
with a resting glower and restless hair and an incapacity for niceties.
He is an avid non presence on the Washington social circuit, has little
time for the Beltway media (with its frequent comparisons of Sanders
and Trump) and has even less time for the Vermont media (which has
off ended him by raising questions about his family’s activities, including
Jane Sanders’s troubled tenure as president of Burlington College, when
her decision to buy waterfront land for the campus sent the institution
into fi nancial insolvency).
Sanders the socialist does indeed have three houses: a Washington
apartment that one former aide called ‘‘ratty’’; a Burlington home so
modest that in 2015 his presidential campaign advisers wanted to hold
an open house so reporters could see for themselves what a skinfl int
Sanders was; and, yes, a lake house in North Hero, Vt., that Sanders
bought with royalties from his memoir but seldom visits because he is
not fond of vacationing. Nor is he a fan of sharing personal details. After
considerable urging from his staff , Sanders now tells audiences that he is
the son of a Polish émigré who arrived in Brooklyn penniless and unable
to speak English. But while a Barack Obama or a Marco Rubio might draw
from such material an uplifting only- in- America parable, the narrative
Sanders quickly shifts to is how America has abjectly failed those of his
working- class pedigree.
Never mind his biography, he seems to be saying. ‘‘You want to know
how Bernie Sanders will govern?’’ Sanders asked me in Bakersfi eld. ‘‘He
was elected mayor in 1981. Check out his record. He was elected to
Congress in 1990. Check out his record. Elected to the U.S. Senate inA Bernie Sanders rally in San Antonio on Feb. 22.
Opening pages: The stage after his March 7 rally in Grant Park in Chicago.