Let me preface this article by stating a couple of things for the sake of clarity:
- I have no intention of slandering or disrespecting other candidates
or their voter base. I believe it is counter-productive and a good way
to alienate those whom you may potentially bring to your side in the
general election.
- I understand that some may support different candidates. That is
your right and I respect it. That said, please note that this is my
opinion and I hope that you will at least consider what is being said in
a fair and honest manner, regardless of where your allegiance lie
afterwards.
With this out of the way, I would like to outline the reasons why I support Sanders in 2020, as I did in 2016.
I think that the summation of the campaign
slogan “Not Me, Us!” encapsulates why I am a Sanders voter. I am voting
for a future that is comparatively of less consequence to me than it is
to younger voters. With that being said, we must think beyond our own
individuality and consider the countless others who are not in our
shoes.
Income Inequality & College Debt
It is hard enough to try to get ahead in
this world. We all have to work to put food on the table, and ensure
that basic needs are met. Now imagine trying to get a start in life
where most jobs that pay a decent wage require a college degree. Sure,
you can get a scholarship, if you make the cut for the limited
scholarships available. If you don’t, then you have to take out a loan.
The common answer from older voters is
“Well, I had to do it too,” but have you considered that the cost for a
college education has skyrocketed—even when compared to the cost of
living?
Just to get a decent start in life, the
current generation has to take on debt that has inflated 2.5 times the
value of a home and basic cost of living between 1978 to 2010. This
effectively puts them in a massive hole that they will need to work
their way out of.
To make matters worse, according to an article written by Abigail Hess from CNBC:
As 2019 comes to a close, for many doing a review of their finances, the decade will likely be defined by student debt.
Today, some 44 million Americans collectively hold nearly $1.6 trillion in student debt. Given that there are approximately 242 million Americans over the age of 18, that means that roughly 18% of American adults are paying off student loans.
These rates are even higher among young people. According to the Federal Reserve, over half of young adults who went to college in 2018 took on debt.
At the end of 2009, Americans held roughly $772 billion in student
loans. By the end of 2019, that total had spiked to nearly $1.6 trillion
— that’s an increase of roughly 107%.
Reference: Student debt increased by 107 this decade, Federal Reserve data shows – by Abigail Hess – https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/30/student-debt-totals-increased-by-107percent-this-decade.html
To
make matters worse, they are still looking at an income rate that has
largely been stagnant since the 1970s. Yet the top 5 percent of earners
income has gone up dramatically in comparison. In light of all of these
facts, how can we expect them to simply accept things as they are?
Better yet, why do we as a society continue to accept it?
Also as a result of the bad trade deals
like NAFTA, the American manufacturing base, especially in the Midwest
(Rust Belt) is virtually non-existent. Automation is also eating into
low skilled and redundant work, so the pool of jobs is getting
smaller. As direct result, the pool of competitors for jobs rises and
the employers can pay employees less.
In
summary, if the young average worker has to spend a good chunk of their
lifetime working out of debt because of college loans, they are already
going to have less disposable income. If there is no upward mobility in
wages as cost of living increases, they have even less. How
can an economy not be stagnant when the working class has no disposable
income (if they even have an income) to buy products? This matters
because the consumer, not the business person, is the gas that fuels the
economy.
The $15 an hour minimum wage that Sanders
dragged into the mainstream is a start. There still have to be
opportunities, and they need to have real relief from crushing loan
debt. The only solutions, other than “We can’t do that,” has come from
Senators Sanders and Warren and Andrew Yang. Sanders' goal, in my opinion
is more ambitious where it forgives college loan debt and makes state
run colleges and universities tuition free. The latter alleviates the
burden on future generations.
Include Senator Sanders federal jobs
initiative and you have more of a pool of opportunities for workers. It
will have the additional impact of decreasing the pool of employees
which can force private industry to offer more competitive wages for
talent.
The Future of Humanity is at Stake
The worst effects of climate change are
still to come, but half measures will get us nowhere. If we don’t take
serious action, we could leave future generations a planet that is
hostile to human life. Being in the pockets of the fossil fuel lobby via
campaign donations risks watering down efforts to aggressively change to
more sustainable energy.
Our effects on our ecosystem is no longer
debatable. There is scientific consensus that humanity’s effect on the
ecosystem is measurable and evident.
The current warming trend is of particular significance
because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent
probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.1
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have
enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different
types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale.
This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a
changing climate.
The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.2
Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the
atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA.
There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must
cause the Earth to warm in response.
Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain
glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse
gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean
sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient,
or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring
roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery
warming.3
Reference: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
The
role of adults in society is to try guide the next generation in a
manner that gives them a chance at a better future than the previous
generations had. We also owe them and subsequent generations a
habitable world that they can pass on to their progeny. This isn’t just
an United States thing. This is an “all of humanity” thing. It’s global.
Just one campaign cycle ago, Senator
Sanders declared the top threat to national security being climate change. At the time, many laughed. Now in 2020 more people are parroting
the line. Once again showing Senator Sanders was out front, before most
of the rest of our leaders in Washington D.C.
The time for half-measures is
over. If we are to be good custodians of our world, and the future of
humanity we must be serious about climate change. I believe that Sanders is as serious about combating climate change as they come.
Racial and Social Justice
It is easy to look at the current field
and note that they are all white people. The News media certainly
reminds us enough. What it doesn’t mention is that Senator Sanders is
Jewish. Both of his father's parents were lost in the Holocaust.
He is not the kind of person to go out of
his way to bring it up, but when asked about it in a 2016 CNN interview
the exchange went as follows:
Sanders could be the first Jewish
U.S. president ever elected, though he has repeatedly described himself
as a secular Jew without strong ties to organized religion.
Jewish political activists, historians
and pollsters have said Sanders’ minority faith has also been overlooked
because the national attitude toward Jews has evolved to the point
where there’s no stigma attached to the religion or culture.
Sanders’ comments on his Judaism were in
response to CNN’s Anderson Cooper asking him if he is intentionally
keeping his Judaism in the background , after an audience member asked
Sanders whether he believed God to be relevant, to which Sanders
responded, “yes.”
Reference: CNN Politics, Bernie Sanders: ‘My fathers family was wiped out by Hitler in the Holocaust’ by Daniella Diaz
Understanding
these facts can help understand why Bernie took the stand that he did
during the civil rights movement. It’s easier to relate to other ethnic
groups and marginalized communities when you are a descendant of a
marginalized community yourself.
Without going into all of the details in
this article (which is lengthy enough), I will reference a Mother Jones
article about Sanders in the Civil Rights Era.
During Sanders’ first year in Chicago, a group of
apartment-hunting white and black students had discovered that
off-campus buildings owned by the university were refusing to rent to
black students, in violation of the school’s policies. CORE organized a
15-day sit-in at the administration building, which Sanders helped lead.
(James Farmer, who co-founded CORE and had been a Freedom Rider with
Lewis, came to the University of Chicago that winter to praise the
activists’ work.) The protest ended when George Beadle, the university’s
president, agreed to form a commission to study the school’s housing
policies... He continued his activism with CORE and SNCC. In August of 1963, not
long after returning to Chicago from the March on Washington, Sanders
was charged with resisting arrest after protesting segregation at a
school on the city’s South Side. He was later fined $25, according to
the Chicago Tribune:
Reference: Mother Jones, “Here’s What Bernie Sanders Actually Did in the Civil Rights Movement” by Tim Murphy
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/bernie-sanders-core-university-chicago/
He
has also taken a stand for LGBTQ rights in the 1970s. Politifact
referenced Chuck Todd’s comment about Senator Sanders stance as follows:
Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, focused on same-sex marriage during an interview with Clinton on Sept. 27, 2015.
“Bernie Sanders has been where you are on these issues,” Todd said.
“Bernie Sanders was there when it came to marriage 20 years ago. Do you
think one of the reasons he’s doing well right now is some progressives
think, ‘Well, you know what? He was there when it wasn’t popular.’”
Todd said Sanders was “there” on same-sex marriage 20 years ago, but we found evidence pointing back even further.
In the early 1970s, Sanders ran for governor of Vermont under the
banner of the Liberty Union party, a coalition of leftist groups. The
party platform called for making taxes tougher on corporations and
lighter on families, an end to the Vietnam War and a number of measures
to get government out of people’s private lives.
“The Liberty Union believe that there are entirely too many laws that
regulate human behavior,” Sanders wrote in an open letter. “Let us
abolish all laws which attempt to impose a particular brand of morality
or ‘right’ on people. Let’s abolish all laws dealing with abortion,
drugs, sexual behavior (adultery, homosexuality, etc.).”
Reference: Politifact, “NBC’s Chuck Todd: Bernie Sanders was there on same-sex marriage 20 years ago” by Jon Greenberg – https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/sep/29/chuck-todd/nbcs-chuck-todd-bernie-sanders-there-same-sex-marr/
There
is a reference to the original letter, but unfortunately it is a broken
link. However, the same platform can be found here:
Some might argue that he didn’t perfectly
meet the modern bar. Perhaps so. But there are many who were around in
that era who didn’t even meet his bar. I think a fan made video sums it
up nicely, using the speech given by Killer Mike:
I would rather have someone who at least
will honestly take a stand when times are hard, than someone who only
says the right things when it is convenient or politically expedient.
A Candidate Who Means What He Says and Says What He Means
I often say that “You can’t possibly mean
what you say, if you don’t say precisely what you mean.” Words have
meaning, and how you use them have consequences. We currently live in a
time where “Doublespeak” is the norm. Where being duplicitous is
completely expected, especially when it comes to politics.
There was a time where speaking openly and
honestly was refreshing and welcomed. Yet our jaded sensibilities have
allowed us to give up of honesty. You can look at what Senator Sanders
says and compare it to his track record in life and politics to find
he is remarkably consistent. He has stood for these policies for
decades, most notably in the decades when it was not popular, and he was
one of the lone voices in the wilderness.
When Bernie said, “We need to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour,” in 2016 everyone in the establishment said we can’t do it. Now it’s mainstream. When Bernie said, “We need to have Medicare for all,” in 2016, the establishment said that’s crazy. Now it’s mainstream. When Bernie said, “I am going to run on a grassroots funded campaign without big donors,” in 2016 the media said it would never work. Now he is a fundraising juggernaut rivaled only by Trump and Bloomberg, but the difference is Bernie is running solely on small dollar contributions from working class people like us.
I could continue on with health care and
the need to bring the Democratic Party back to FDR principles. I could
go on about how the power brokers in the party have ignored the Midwest
until election time and then forgets them just as quickly. I can talk
about how the Flint Water Crisis still needs resolution, and how the DNC
hasn’t addressed it outside of campaign talking points, but this article
is quite long enough. The bottom line is we need and frankly deserve a leader who works for us!
Make no mistake, he’s not perfect. No one
is. But when compared to the numerous other candidates his rhetoric and
actions, few (if any) have been more consistent than Senator Sanders.
It’s easy to say something when things are popular. It’s easy to fight
for something when everyone, including entrenched power is on your side.
The true mettle of a person is measured when they take a stand when an
idea is well outside of the mainstream.
I stand with the candidate who fights for
the the alienated, the discriminated and the decimated. Say what you
will, but in my opinion that is Senator Bernie Sanders. Unbossed.
Unbought. Unbroken.
References:
