Editor,

What a treat! To wake up the morning after the election to the news of a President-Elect Bernie Sanders and a Vice-President-Elect Elizabeth Warren.

No, it wasn’t a smooth path to victory. Some distrusted Sanders as a former Independent. Some worried about a lack of foreign policy experience. Some feared that his calls for a revolution would bring about too many changes too quickly. But when faced with the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, most Democratic critics decided to cast their vote for the Sanders-Warren ticket.

The coalition who voted them into office was a thing to behold. Young people resonated to their message of protecting the planet and tackling student debt. Taxpayers approved of ending government subsidies to fossil fuel corporations. Citizens of all ages embraced the chance for a single-payer health care system that would make insurance companies obsolete and drug prices reasonable. Minorities knew they could rely on Sanders’ record of protecting and expanding civil rights. The inclusion of Warren on the ticket appealed to women, and her tenacious fight to regulate banks appealed to Main Street. The Rust Belt responded to Bernie’s populist message; working people from coast to coast felt that Sanders understood their diminishing prospects and would champion their interests. And because of it, voter turnout was through the roof; the Senate and House turned blue! All the donors—those millions who contributed small amounts—believed they had an investment in the campaign. They had a stake. They had a share. After all the years of big-donor domination and secret money and superPACS pulling levers in the dark, this was a campaign owned by we, the people.

My American dream: the one that could have been; the one that yet may be.

DIANNA MACLEOD

Langley