WKSU News: Presidential candidate Sanders talks Middle East and the middle class in Cleveland

Tuesday, November 17, 2015 Presidential candidate Sanders talks Middle East and the middle class in Cleveland Sanders calls for ISIS defeat but not a commitment to a perpectual war by WKSU's M.L. SCHULTZE	Web Editor M.L. Schultze

Sanders invited the crowd to join a revolution.

Courtesy of M.L. SCHULTZE

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders touched on all of his favorite topics in his more than hour-long speech in Cleveland last night. But the speech began in an unusual place for him – foreign policy. WKSU’s M.L. Schultze reports:

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Sen. Sanders recognized the victims of the terror attacks in Paris Friday night. He lauded President Obama’s effort to lead alliances that include Russia and Muslim countries to defeat ISIS. He rejected calls by Gov. John Kasich and others to bar Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. And he rejected the idea that the U.S. should commit troops to what he called “a perpetual war in the Middle East.”

Then he pivoted.

“I say, 'Yes we will lead the world in defeating ISIS. But at the same time we will rebuild the disappearing middle class of this country.'”

If he’s elected president, Sanders said that will happen with an emphasis on affordable college, family leave, income equality for women, a shift in national resources from prisons to education and restrictions on Wall Street and big money in politics.