Sanders says he’s in sync with Americans

DAVENPORT - U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who will be in Iowa this weekend while continuing to test the waters for a potential 2016 presidential bid, said Thursday that American voters are angrier at many of the country's institutions than many realize - and that even though they want real change, most will sit out this year's midterm elections.

'What we have to appreciate right now is there is a great demoralization politically in this country,” Sanders said in an interview with the Quad-City Times.

Sanders, who has been in Congress since 1991 and the Senate since 2007, today will host a town hall forum in Davenport.

On Sunday, Sanders will be a speaker at a fall BBQ Democratic Party event at the Johnson County Fairgrounds, 4261 Oak Crest Hill Rd. SE, Iowa City.

The Vermont independent didn't shed any new light on whether he'll run for president or when he'll make that decision. But he said his ideas for dealing with declining middle-class incomes, climate change, the uninsured and Social Security are in sync with the American people.

'On all these issues, I think I am representing what the vast majority of the American people want,” he said.

Sanders has proposed large investments in infrastructure, sharply raising the minimum wage, public funding for campaigns, moving toward a single-payer health care system and moving away from fossil fuels as an energy source.

He said the Sunni extremist group ISIS is 'brutal” but voted against a measure last month allowing the United States to help train and arm rebels fighting them. Sanders said he does support airstrikes.

Most public opinion polls say that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is far and away the favorite in a contest for the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nomination.

Still, the senator has been showing up on the doorstep of the first-in-the-nation caucus state. He was at an event in Clinton County in May. And he also appeared in the state three weeks ago, the same weekend as Sen. Tom Harkin's final steak fry, which featured Clinton in her first return to the state since her loss in the 2008 caucuses.