Feel The Bern: Sanders Offers Viable Alternative

I am largely expected to be a Hillary Clinton supporter, as most liberals are. And, until recently, I expected myself to be too. But that was before I found the modern messiah of American politics, a man I, along with many other liberals, hope, albeit idealistic, to see as the next President of the United States of America.

Bernie Sanders.

Our pal Bernie is a 73 year old Jew from Brooklyn. He’s not new to the game of politics– he’s the longest serving independent in the history of Congress, and spent 16 years as Vermont’s only Congressman in the House of Representatives, before being elected to the Senate in 2006.

Most media note his thick accent, still alive and well despite his 38 years spend in Vermont, and his rumpled clothes and tousled hair. Media attention also tends to jump on the fact that he is a socialist.

Wait– don’t put up the wall. As soon as many hear “socialist,” they think Communism and Red Scare and USSR and the downfall of capitalism as we know it! The very foundation of the United States will fall apart with the implementation of this Leftist agent into the US government!

Sanders is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, though he is running in the Democratic primary. His socialist beliefs do not entail his running on a platform of “smash the bourgeois, the proletariat will rise!” His platform simply seeks to foster equality where there is none, and better the conditions of the modern American life. He seeks to fight income inequality and poverty, and implement tax and campaign finance reform. Essentially, he seeks to level the playing field for the average man.

Most of Sanders’ campaign platform focuses on positive and progressive change. He wants to rebuild infrastructure in order to create jobs, address climate change, implement practical and effective tax reform, and protect the underserved populations. He sees health care as a universal right, and wants it guaranteed to all Americans. He is probably the only politician to ever stand up and say that he wants to fight Wall Street, as he has no fear of losing their support and money– he never had it to begin with.  In addition to all these great things, he wants to create affordable college, trade policies that benefit workers, and worker co-ops.

Sanders also seeks to create jobs, raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and obtain equal pay for women. He is vehemently against the modern situation concerning campaign finance, and refused to take campaign contributions from billionaires. His website says that it is “paid for by Bernie 2016 (not the billionaires)”. Sanders, in his first 24 hours as an official candidate, raised $1.5 million. This came from 35,000 donors, who contributed an average of $43 each. Sanders saw this as a major accomplishment, considering the fact that he is not expecting donations from any super-wealthy friends, or the support of any super PACs. Nor does he want this support. He wants his campaign to be “ a political revolution which engages millions of Americans from all walks of life in the struggle for real change. This country belongs to all of us, not just the billionaire class. And that’s what this campaign is all about. To win this campaign, all of us must be deeply involved.” He wants boots on the ground, real people to be deeply invested in his cause and willing to fight for it.

Sanders believes that “American democracy is being undermined by the ability of the Koch brothers and other billionaire families.” He wants to overturn the Citizens United court case, which allowed for corporations and unions to spend as much money as they want to advocate for or against candidates. The case essentially put elections into the hands of billionaires and corporations. Sanders instead seeks to create public funding for elections, thus opening the offices to those who are not independently affluent.

I suppose many would argue that his platform is naive, idealistic to the point of delusion. Perhaps people see him as a crazy old man. But we are so jaded! Maybe politics does not have to be a smarmy game of backroom deals, but an open and transparent process in which our representatives fight for us and our interests, rather than those of billionaires. Perhaps it is not so crazy to call for better conditions for the poor. To call for equality.

After graduating from University of Chicago, Sanders moved to Vermont where he worked as a carpenter and documentary filmmaker. In 1981, he was elected mayor of Burlington by a margin of only ten votes. Under his reign as mayor, Sanders worked to better develop Burlington into the city it is now– exciting and vibrant, despite its small size. His administration worked to create affordable housing, progressive taxes, environmental protections, better programs concerning the arts, and address women’s needs. One can see the consistency in his beliefs. He is not changing his mind with the tide of elections. He has strong, deeply rooted beliefs.

His Congressional record reads similarly to his experience as mayor, and his current platform. He has fought for working families, advocated for the middle class, and fought against the growing wealth gap in America. He was crowned “amendment king” by Rolling Stone for his success in passing more amendments than any other member of Congress. “He accomplishes this on the one hand by being relentlessly active and on the other by using his status as an independent to form left-right coalitions,” said Matt Taibbi, a writer for Rolling Stone.

Sanders was the first independent elected to the House of Representatives in 40 years when he won the election in 1990. Since then, he has caucused with the Democrats, and helped organize the Congressional Progressive Caucus, now comprised of 76 members from both the House and the Senate. The caucus works to represent the economic interest of the average American.

From what I can gather, Sanders is a down-to-earth individual who sees government as a vehicle for positive change. He is looking to create a better America for the masses. And I struggle to find a problem with that.

Quite frankly, I think Bernie Sanders is refreshing. He seems to mean what he says, and has a deep ideological belief of equality driving his political directives. I see him as a positive addition to the current political landscape of the super-rich ruling the game and bipartisan gridlock.

When you open his website, it reads “A political revolution is coming.” And this revolution, advocating for social and economic justice, is exactly what the American populace needs.