Bernie Sanders Backed For President By ‘The Nation’ Magazine: ‘He Is Calling Americans To A Political Revolution’

Bernie Sanders appears to be expanding his support base with each passing day.

Barely days after the Vermont senator scored a major endorsement by MoveOn, a liberal advocacy organization, now Bernie Sanders has been backed by a leading progressive magazine to become the next President of the United States. In a report published recently in The Nation, its editors backed Sanders to defeat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination come June, and eventually storm to the White House in November. The endorsement, which has been in the works since last month, will be part of a cover story in the February 8 edition of the magazine, reports Politico.

To put the endorsement into context, this is only the third time that the liberal magazine has endorsed a candidate for presidency: the previous two times being its bid to support Jesse Jackson in 1988, followed by its support for Barack Obama in 2008.

The endorsement is certain to be welcomed by Bernie Sanders himself, who has overseen his campaign to close the gap on Hillary Clinton in the primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire over the course of the last month. Supporters of the Vermont senator have consistently been arguing that Sanders is the only candidate who can usher in an era of “political revolution” in the country, and with the Iowa caucus only a few weeks away now, they will view the latest endorsement as a victory in their attempts to wrestle away the lead from the hands of Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination.

In the report, the editors welcomed Sanders’ uncompromising attitude on Wall Street and tax reforms, his visions to implement single-payer healthcare, tuition-free college, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, further arguing that the changes sought by Sanders can only be brought in when people “wrest our democracy from the corrupt grip of Wall Street bankers and billionaires.”

“Galvanized by Bernie Sanders’ demands for economic and social justice, hundreds of thousands of Americans have packed his rallies, and over 1 million small donors have helped his campaign shatter fund-raising records while breaking the stranglehold of corporate money.”

“Most important, Sanders has used his insurgent campaign to tell Americans the truth about the challenges that confront us. He has summoned the people to a ‘political revolution.'”

“We believe such a revolution is not only possible but necessary—and that’s why we’re endorsing Bernie Sanders for president.”

Having said that, the editors at The Nation maintained that despite Bernie Sanders being able to give Hillary Clinton a tough race in the primary states, his path to the democratic nomination remains strewn with difficulties. For example, the editors wrote, that Sanders does not yet command a strong following among the minorities in the country, while Hillary Clinton has political allies among Republicans which Bernie Sanders obviously does not, thereby making his chances of creating a coalition rather difficult.

Nonetheless, the editorial stated that Bernie Sanders could win the nomination because of the independent nature of his campaign. Sanders is the first candidate in the history of the United States to raise money with the help of over two million small, individual donations, thereby helping himself to break free from the shackles of what the editors called the “financial overlords” of America.

“Voters can trust Sanders because he doesn’t owe his political career to the financial overlords of the status quo. Freed from these chains of special interest, he can take the bold measures that the country needs.”

“Bernie Sanders and his supporters are bending the arc of history toward justice. Theirs is an insurgency, a possibility, and a dream that we proudly endorse.”

While the endorsement certainly does not lack in lofty rhetoric and an eagerness to get ahead of itself, there is no doubt that Bernie Sanders and his supporters will view The Nation’s support of their campaign as perhaps a small — but nonetheless important — step in their march towards the White House.