A Different Kind of Change Former independent senator from Vermont and current Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders seeks to shake up the political system. An outspoken socialist, Sanders hopes to bring new ideas to the White House. With the promise of change and a new type of politics, Sanders' campaign is gaining momentum. Many believe he is the type of president this country needs while others believe he could be the end of America as we know it. Bernie Sanders, 73, is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in history (Catanese 2015). Sanders' first major political victory came in 1981 when he was elected mayor of the city of Burlington, Vermont. This was the beginning of Sanders' economic goals, which included levying higher taxes on businesses and the upper class, primarily. With excess tax revenue, Sanders wants to invest in social programs such as health care and other public programs, of which free college tuition is the most popular with the public. Essentially, Sanders' goal is to take the wealth of the nation's top earners and distribute it among the middle and lower classes, thereby narrowing the economic gap. “You can’t have it all… your greed has to stop.” That's Sanders' cry to this country's billionaires, and it's a problem he hopes his economic policies will solve. These types of economic policies are comparable to those of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, which are the main argument Sanders' opponents make against him. Obviously, Sanders does not advocate genocide and the radical types of leadership that Mussolini and Hitler led, but those who oppose Sanders view his economic ideas as doomed to failure, just as was the case in all Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. Although, in the eyes of the majority of Americans, being compared to the socialists of the 1930s and 1940s is not a good idea for Sanders, Sanders embraces his socialism. Seventy-three years old now, Sanders would be seventy-five by the time of the general election. in 2016. This would be by far the oldest a person elected president would be at the time of their first election. He would beat Ronald Reagan as the oldest president ever elected, beating Reagan by five years. Many see this as a problem that Sanders will not be able to overcome during his presidential campaign. Sanders would be seventy-nine years old at the end of his first term and eighty-three years old at the end of his second term, assuming he is re-elected. According to National Journal author Charlie Cook, "Most people would be uncomfortable with age ».