From the NEW YORK TIMES:

“The Revolution Is Life Versus Death,” in fact, was the title of an article he wrote for The Vermont Freeman, an alternative, authority-challenging newspaper published for a few years back then. The piece began with an apocalyptically alarmist account of the unbearable horror of having an office job in New York City, of being among “the mass of hot dazed humanity heading uptown for the 9-5,” sentenced to endless days of “moron work, monotonous work.”

“The years come and go,” Mr. Sanders wrote, in all apparent seriousness. “Suicide, nervous breakdown, cancer, sexual deadness, heart attack, alcoholism, senility at 50. Slow death, fast death. DEATH.”

Chalk some of this up to being young and unemployed. Mr. Sanders, now 73, has had a steady, nonrevolutionary job for quite some time now. His current workplace, the United States Senate, is not exactly known for its thrill-a-minute dynamism. But through his long evolution from outraged outsider to mainstream man in a suit, Mr. Sanders has remained true to his original message: sympathy for the downtrodden, the impoverished and the disenfranchised in the face of the rich and the powerful.

And the profile goes on..

Bernie Sanders is the Ron Paul of 2016–a big base of little people donating a little bit of money, pocket change, couch coins.. Whatever they can find.. For the man they think can change the nation. Paul and Sanders are both true believers, both on opposite sides of the political spectrum..
And perhaps in a perfect world, the general election ballot would feature Bernie Sanders vs Ron Paul. Now that would be a debate for the heart and soul of the future–I would even bet record turnout as well.

However, primaries happen.
And when they do, Clintons and Bushes do very well.
The rest will be history.