"The best known socialist in America"

[highplainsdem]

16. Biden practiced law before going into politics. Sanders did hold a few jobs, ones

he wouldn't have needed a college degree for, including being a bad carpenter (his friends' assessment).

But Sanders spent most of his thirties, when he already had a child, running repeatedly for office for a fringe leftwing party that had no chance of getting anywhere, making so little money he couldn't keep his electric bill paid, writing eccentric opinion pieces for publications that paid almost nothing, and traveling all over Vermont hitting the same political talking points he tends to hit now.

If a friend hadn't talked him into running for mayor of Burlington, and if Sanders hadn't managed to squeak out a victory by only 10 votes, God knows where Sanders would be now. Once he won that election he got some media attention and he ran with it.

Then Sanders also suddenly had some money, though his own writings while mayor explained that he was having trouble with such basic things as paying his bills, keeping his car repaired, and keeping his home tidy enough to have people over.

My impression is that Jane later provided the stability Bernie needed to deal with those basic things.