Bernie Sanders: The fights we can win right now.

http://www.alternet.org/bernie-sanders-moment-truth-these-are-political-fights-he-could-win-right-now?akid=13319.294211.bO48px&rd=1&src=newsletter1039694&t=9

For example, the federal highway trust fund faces a deadline at the end of the month, with plenty of potential downsides. The House passed a five-month patch setting up a more permanent fix that pays for infrastructure with a misguided tax amnesty for large corporations that park earnings overseas, which has been pushed in recent weeksby Chuck Schumer. Senate Republicans, thinking they may get a better deal with a colleague in the White House, are scrambling to find money for a two-year patch, including making significant cuts to the federal employee retirement program.

The payment options for infrastructure are pretty awful, compared to simply putting a user fee on the roads that need fixing through a small increase in the gas tax. Liberal Democrats have the power to shape what happens next, and the first stage of the endgame is happening in a matter of days. So where is Sanders on that? What’s he telling his supporters to do about it?

Tied up with the highway bill are negotiations around the expired Export-Import Bank. Though most of the Democratic Party now supports Ex-Im, in the past Sanders has been staunchly against it as an example of corporate welfare and outsourcing, earning praise even from the likes of Ted Cruz. Congress will try to resurrect Ex-Im soon. If Sanders still believes it helps ship jobs overseas, is he prepared to ask his new followers to help him stop it?

Similarly, within two months we will have a Congressional vote on the nuclear deal with Iran. Foreign policy items go completely unmentioned in Sanders’ speeches, but at hisSenate website he called the deal “a victory for diplomacy over saber-rattling.” President Obama just needs one-third of either house of Congress to maintain the nuclear deal, again giving power to the liberal bloc. The votes will occur in September. Is Sanders prepared to organize around that?

There are more short-term issues up in the air, from the fight over the next appointment to the Securities and Exchange Commission to the inevitable battles over the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which Sanders has already engaged on). What’s his strategy?