Bernie Sanders

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Then there is the coup de grâce: Sanders used his congressional campaign war chest to enrich his family members. An investigation by the neocon outlet Washington Free Beacon reveals that Sanders”€™ wife, Jane O”€™Meara Sanders, collected a cool $90,000 from her husband’s House campaign in return for consulting services from 2002 to 2004. Bernie’s stepdaughter Carina Driscoll also collected $65,000 from the campaign during the same period.

The shady dealings don”€™t stop there. O”€™Meara Sanders reportedly abused her privileged position as president of Burlington College from 2004 to 2011. Under Mrs. Sanders”€™ tenure, the college paid $500,000 to the Vermont Woodworking School, which was run by Driscoll. Additionally, the school gave an all-inclusive Caribbean resort run by family friend Jonathan Leopold $68,000 for a study-abroad program. After O”€™Meara Sanders stepped down from head of Burlington College (not before inflating donor pledges for a loan application from the local Roman Catholic Diocese that cost the bishopric administration nearly $2 million), payments to the resort and woodworking school ended. Funny, that.

Just consider: a nepotistic enriching scheme, abuse of taxpayer dollars, financial irresponsibility. Those all sound like things Senator Sanders rails against on a regular basis. Yet he and his family seem to have no problem skimming fat off the top of the system, as long as it benefits them.

How very Gordon Gekko of them.

Bernie Sanders just narrowly lost the Iowa caucus to Hillary Clinton (though the results could be questioned). But he is expected to beat the former First Lady in New Hampshire, and could pick up momentum from there. For political observers, the Sanders ascent is exciting and shows cracks in Clinton’s seemingly unstoppable campaign machine. But for the rest of us, those who don”€™t want to see the country turned into a Third World haven just so a few wealthy interests can make a couple million bucks, it’s not encouraging.

Sanders is not the revolutionary he claims to be. He might have the endearing persona of Grandpa Simpson on a mescaline binge, but at the end of the day, he’s just another politician who campaigns on values he refuses to live by.

Feel the Bern? I”€™m feeling burned, all right. The only rational response is to keep calm and vote Trump.