Bernie Sanders, who aims at being the Democratic Party's nominee for the President of the US, has earned an unexpected following with his staunch critique of the super-rich and his promise to reduce glaring class inequalities. But his foreign policy offers no fundamental departures from the received view. Moreover, his ascendancy signifies yet again the impossibility of a third space in American politics which has forever oscillated between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

The remarks of the United States presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, on Muslims in America have caused outrage all over the world and have led many to say that Trump is going against what the country stands for. The present rash of Islamophobia is, however, only the latest example of a deep vein of racism and xenophobia that runs through mainstream American society.

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