Bernie Sanders, the septuagenarian senator from chilly Vermont, is once again rocking the political world.

Of course, I mean that in a good way, at least if you're a Republican worried about the 2018 and 2020 elections.  Sanders has unintentionally thrown a life preserver to Republican candidates in both the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential race.

He announced at the meeting of the People's Summit held in Chicago this past weekend (and attended by a reported 4,000 people) that what he views as utterly necessary to "fix" what ails the United States is the creation of a People's Party.  With himself, of course, as its leader, standard-bearer, and candidate.

The People's Summit was organized by folks from the Bernie Sanders campaign and National Nurses United (NNU), a national nurses union with a reported 150,000 members.  The NNU was one of only six national unions to back Bernie over Hillary.  The executive director of the NNU, RoseAnn DeMoro, is an active supporter of Sen. Sanders.  Ms. DeMoro joined him on the stage after he had finished speaking to the crowd at the Summit (many of whom waved professionally printed "Draft Bernie" signs).

How can you tell that Ms. DeMoro actually supports Bernie's candidacy and the formation of a People's Party?  Well, she managed to have her union donate $1,000,000 to Bernie's failed 2016 presidential campaign. 

No matter how you want to look at it, $1,000,000 is a lot of support, especially when it's not your money.  It's money raised from her union members.  You know, nurses.  Those "underpaid and overworked" nurses.  So just how underpaid are they?  Well, they were only able to reach into their own pockets and accumulate $1,000,000 to give to Bernie Sanders.

Just as a reminder, no union actually asks its members to reach into their own pockets and make a contribution to the favored candidate of the union leadership.  Oh, no – the leadership already has the money in the form of membership fees that are deducted from each and every one of their paychecks on a regular basis by the employer and forwarded from the employer to the union.  Isn't that nice of them?  By claiming their right to collect membership dues even before the employees actually get their paychecks, just think how much stress it relieves the employees of facing when dealing with requests for political contributions.

But I digress.

Finally, just so you are assured that what you're reading is the straight truth about supporters for Bernie Sanders who met in Chicago this past weekend, this article is based on a "news" report written by Ms. Medea Benjamin.

For those of you not familiar with the name Medea Benjamin, you should be aware that certain left-wing, perhaps even extreme left-wing, organizations recognize her name immediately, since she is a co-founder of the extreme left activist group CODEPINK. 

Bernie Sanders's choice of aligning himself and his fellow progressives with this group, and their dream of starting a new political party to run independently from the establishment Democrats who colluded with the 2016 Clinton campaign, does all Republican political candidates in 2018 and 2020 elections a huge favor by enabling the splitting the traditional Democratic Party support base even more than it had been in 2016. 

I wish I could start the next sentence with the words "I'm sorry to say," but I could never say the destruction of Democratic Party's hopes to take back control of the House, the Senate, and the White House would ever be something I was sorry for.  This is not to say I'm incredibly happy with the performance of Republicans, but as bad and weak as they are, they remain head and shoulders above "leaders" such as Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the DNC members who direct the activities of Democratic elected officials.

With that in mind, I wish Bernie Sanders and his fellow Progressives all the luck in the world getting themselves organized so that they can, finally, split off from the Democratic Party elites.  That can only put a smile on my face.

Jim Yardley is a retired financial controller and a two-tour Vietnam veteran and writes frequently about political idiocy, business and economic idiocy, and American cultural idiocy.  Jim also blogs at http://jimyardley.wordpress.com and can be contacted directly at james.v.yardley@gmail.com.