Bernie Sanders, the 73-year-old independent Vermont senator and 2016 presidential candidate, has taken the Internet by storm, earning the title “king of social media” and "Facebook royalty."

The online success of Sen. Sanders can be summed up in one, simple word: Authenticity

Authenticity: noun, the quality of being authentic; genuineness.

On Sunday's "Meet the Press," host Chuck Todd raised an issue that is getting more and more attention from the media: the record proportion of voters who call themselves independents - and their lack of a voice in the upcoming presidential election. Here is part of the transcript...

CHUCK TODD:

The growing number of voters who don't affiliate with either major political party is reshaping our political system perhaps more than you may realize. How? Let's take a look at this.

On July 5, Greek citizens decisively voted "no" on a 68-word referendum about whether to accept a proposal from international financial institutions. The proposal involved the creditors extending a bailout program to Greece in exchange for new austerity measures.

The referendum was the culmination of a week of tensions between the Greek government and the creditors, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB), and leading European politicians.

. . . the idea of the future being different from the present is so repugnant to our conventional modes of thought and behavior that we, most of us, offer a great resistance to acting on it in practice. -- John Maynard Keynes, 1937

For a little more than two decades, the CIA, in conjunction with the director of National Intelligence, has created a forward looking document called Global Trends every four years for use by the Executive Branch for policy-making.

On June 26, I attended an event in Cambridge, Massachusetts called the City Dance Party. Every year thousands of people flock to this event from all over the Greater Boston Area. The streets ringing City Hall are closed down, and for a few hours the square in front of City Hall is turned into an enormous dance party. At night, the front of City Hall is lit up with swirling lights while colored spotlights pan over the jubilant crowd.

As the event neared its end, the energy of the crowd was surging, and in the darkness someone began to waive the rainbow flag of LGBT pride.