What is a Democrat?

One thing I'm tired of hearing about is Bernie Sander's "tenuous" connection to the Democratic Party and his "hypocrisy" in running in the Democratic primaries. In his 16 years in the House, Rep. Sanders not only caucused with the Democrats, he co-founded the Progressive Caucus with liberal Democrats and chaired it for eight years. When it came time to move to the Senate, Sen. Charles Schumer, who was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, endorsed Sanders, meaning no Democrat running against Sanders could expect to receive financial help from the party. Sanders was also endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic National Committee Chairman and former VT Gov. Howard Dean. Dean said in May 2005 that he considered Sanders an ally who "votes with the Democrats 98% of the time." Then-Senator Barack Obama also campaigned for Sanders. His caucusing with the Democrats gave them a 51-49 majority in the Senate during the 110th Congress in 2007-08. By registering as a Democrat, by the way, he became only the second member of the party ever to represent Vermont in the Senate (the other being Leahy). As a nominal Independent, he agreed to vote with the Democrats on procedural issues, but was free to vote as he pleased on policy matters (not that Congressional Democrats are very disciplined on policy anyway), and voted with the majority of Democrats almost always. By caucusing with the Democrats, he was allowed to keep his seniority and received the committee seats that would have been available to him as a Democrat; in 2013-14, he was Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.