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  Bernie Sanders’ 1972 Comments on Segregationist Governor Spark Uproar
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ContributorEastTexasDem 
Last EditedEastTexasDem  Jan 30, 2020 06:34pm
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AuthorJulia Arciga
News DateFriday, January 31, 2020 12:30:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionBernie Sanders was accused of praising a segregationist leader on Thursday after a 1972 article resurfaced in which he told a Vermont newspaper that he thought then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace was “sensitive” to what people felt they needed. The Washington Examiner reports that Sanders—currently a Vermont senator and a 2020 contender—was a gubernatorial candidate for the socialist Liberty Union Party at the time of the interview with the Brattleboro Reformer. Sanders said that while Wallace advocated for some “outrageous approaches to our problems,” he was “sensitive to what people feel they need.” “What we need are more active politicians working for the people,” Sanders added.

That same year, CNN reports that Sanders wrote an essay in which he compared support for Wallace to the conditions in Germany in the 1920s that brought Adolf Hitler to power. “Confusion, rebellion, frustration, economic instability, a wounded national pride, ineffectual political leadership—and the desire for a strong man who would do something, who would bring order out of the chaos,” Sanders wrote.

George Wallace, who served as governor of Alabama four times between the 1960s and the early 1980s, ardently supported segregation—stating in his inaugural speech that he backed “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” He ran for president three times, and later apologized for some of his racist actions.
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