Let’s give a standing ovation to those who are working their hearts out for presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and to those working their hearts out to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to run for president. These good folks embody the best of American politics, the kind of politics America needs more of, and the kind of America that true progressives believe in.
What I like the most about the movement for Sanders and the campaign to draft Warren is this: Not one person working for these causes wants to become assistant secretary of the Treasury, or have a big office in the White House, or parlay their support for the candidate they love into some future job with a multinational conglomerate to make lots of money.
{mosads}Sanders and Warren are conviction politicians. They are in politics to promote values and visions for the America they believe in. And their supporters are in politics for the high purpose of patriotism, to give their time, their spirit, their energy and their small donations for one purpose and one purpose only: to make America better.
It is refreshing and exciting to see people who enter politics without readying their resumes to make lots of money on the side, to become lobbyists for special interests or egotists who tell dinner parties how important they think they are.
It is true that I support a different candidate, Hillary Clinton.
It is equally true that I am full of admiration and respect for the wonderful people who are working their hearts out for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — two conviction politicians who make the Senate a better place every day they serve in it and who make America a better place with every word they speak and every cause they fight for.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.