Skip to content

Bernie Sanders Says Two-Party System Kills Competition of Ideas

Bernie Sanders Says Two-Party System Kills Competition of Ideas
Published:

Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running in the Democratic presidential primary, openly expressed his disapproval of the two-party system on Thursday during an MSNBC candidate forum. Sanders has described himself as a democratic socialist and argues that it is “wrong” how America’s current system diminishes competition to just two sides.

"I chose to run proudly in the Democratic primary and caucus and look forward to winning that process. But clearly, as a nation, I think we flourish when there are different ideas out there," he said.

"Sometimes the two-party system makes it very, very difficult to get on the ballot if you are a third party, and I think that's wrong. I think we should welcome competition." - U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Since he announced his candidacy, Sanders has maintained that his decision to run as a Democrat as opposed to running as an independent is because he does not want to be responsible for a Republican win by splitting votes in the general election.

Read the full story here.

Photo Credit: Juli Hansen / Shutterstock.com

Athena Gavranian

Athena received a B.A. in Political Science and English from University of California, Berkeley. She was an intern for District 4 at the Berkeley City Council and is currently an IVN correspondent.

IVN is rated Center by AllSides and High Credibility by MBFC — follow our independent journalism in your feed.

Add IVN on Google

Contact IVN

Questions about this article or our coverage? Send us a message. A free IVN member account is required.

Message sent

Thanks, we’ll review it and get back to you if needed.

Message not sent

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.

Sign in to send a message

Messages are tied to your IVN member account. Signing in is free and takes a few seconds.