American election season

As the American election season officially begins tomorrow, many progressive voters seem excited about the Bernie Sanders campaign.  Outside of the United States, Sanders looks like a fairly mainstream social democrat, but inside the country he certainly seems like an aberration of the American political tradition.   That being the case, I was fascinated by this recent piece on one of the American founders, Thomas Paine.  Clearly there is an intellectual radicalism within the American tradition, which Sanders seems to be channeling.  Fascinating stuff in an otherwise bleak and scary election season inside America.