How far can Bernie Sanders go?

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A woman’s voice carried through a lull in several conversations around the table at a smart East Coast dinner. ‘But he’s not even a fucking Democrat…’ She was one of the party’s stars and was talking about Senator Bernie Sanders. He is inducing as much red-faced apoplexy in the Democratic party’s great and good as Donald Trump is causing among the Republican establishment: outsiders both, each upsetting the smooth coronation of the party leadership’s candidate for president. ‘Bernie’ — as he’s often called — shared a stage with Hillary Clinton last week at the first Democratic primary debate. It has been an incredible journey for a man who has spent most of his life fighting against the party as a socialist and a self-described radical. Even after Hillary Clinton’s confident debate performance, they are level in the polls in New Hampshire, the first state to hold a primary election. Earlier this month, I went to a Sanders rally in Boston to see the candidate and meet the voters inflicting such humiliation on the Democrats’ heir apparent. A cavernous hall echoed to chants of ‘BER-NIE. BER-NIE. BER-NIE’. Twenty thousand people had come to see him, according to his campaign, a record for a Massachusetts primary event at this stage of the race, beating even Barack Obama’s turnout in 2007. Bernie Sanders, a stooped 74-year-old, worked his way along a rope line, plunging into a sea of eager, outstretched hands. Fans wore T-shirts showing only his distinctive fringe of white hair and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. I watched this scene with Jeff Santos, host of a ‘left-to-centre, progressive’ radio show. Jeff said Bernie was filling halls because people were sick of poll-driven, focus-group-tested candidates who might say anything to get elected, i.e.