When that Commie showed up in Vermont, we were the most Republican state in the nation. The only state that voted against FDR four times, IIRC!
Bernie showed up as a post-college-age commie... worked with a shovel in Burlington for a couple of weeks to establish 'workingman' cred.... then never lost an election. Some small board. City Counsel. Mayor. Representative. Senator. All the while lining his pockets with millions, destroying everything he touched and preaching Communism around the nation.
He is a Soviet... Soviet agent... Stalinist. He is not a Democratic Socialist. He is a hard-core, unapologetic Communist.
Fortunately, his original base in VT was idiot college students, leftover hippies who could not find their way home after eating the brown acid... and the IBM lefty drones who got imported here. Then he/they declared Vermont an open state for freaks, refugees, hippies, peter puffers, mentally-retarded, etc,etc, etc. and imported so many voters into the two enclaves that control the state... that he can't lose.
Look at his playbook and be afraid. But America is not the smallest, easiest-hijacked state. We were hijacked because of a Good Fences Make Good Neighbors and a "libertarian, you do your thing and I'll do mine" outlook. By the time we woke up to their Mrs. Kravitz-like meddling, it was too late. They had taken over.
Today, much harder. And the sunlight is on these commies.
Don't count Bernie out. He is dangerous like Lenin and Hitler... really. The 'smooth promises exterior' is a facade on a bitter, angry, silver-spoon-raised hardcore Communist who wants to kill all his enemies faster than Pol Pot, Mao and Hitler.
I applauded the town hall because it gave people a chance to see Bernie outside of sound bite mode. He came across as an angry commie with a microphone. Good.
Cheers,
Sirhr