Bernie Sanders isn’t just the old guy with the crazy hair you hardly ever hear about on television. Bernie Sanders is a candidate for the people. The way he is going about his surge to stardom is unheard of, and at this current time and current state our country is in, it is just what we need.
Although he just looks like the crazy uncle you only see at family reunions or Thanksgiving dinner, he is one of the most logical thinkers in this coming election.
Sanders is the longest tenured Independent in United States Congressional history. His first senate election in 2006 was won with a 2-1 margin over businessman Rich Tarrant in Vermont. In 2012, Sanders was reelected with 71 percent of the popular vote.
Now Sanders has announced his candidacy for president, running as an Independent on the Democratic ticket, and he’s not focused on polls or running negative campaign ads. He is staying focused on the task at hand and running for the American people.
The American people have bought into Sanders for his concern for the future and his attempts to fix the present by correcting the country’s past mistakes, so much so that he’s closing the gap between himself and Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.
He focuses on the issues at hand and refuses to badmouth other candidates. He just sticks to talking about the issues that matter to the people.
The topics Sen. Sanders focuses on are those that a majority of the American people have been concerned with but have never had any voice in an argument or debate. Now they do.
Sen. Sanders stresses that he is a Democratic Socialist, and that the American people need to get it out of their head that "socialist" is a bad word. All a Democratic Socialist is, in Sanders’ terms, is a person with a desire to ensure that every person has access to housing, health care, education, meaningful employment and transportation all while supporting gender equality and tolerance of differences. That seems so scary, doesn’t it?
At the very base of every economic policy is a theory. All the economic theories work on paper, but nowhere near all of them work when implemented into an economy. So why not take the democratic society we live in with its capitalistic views and meld it together with socialist views?
Balance is key in everything. Sen. Sanders’ economic policy is one in which everyone has health care, housing, etc. as listed above, but his social issues are the same as a majority of the coming generation.
He supports gender equality, equal pay for equal work, guaranteed sick and maternity leave and free public college tuition. He’s been a strong supporter for LGBT rights, and he has pushed hard for finding alternative means of fuel besides fossil fuels in order to save the environment. Not only is he as in tune with the views on social issues as the young people in this country, but he is in tune with the vast majority of the people in this country in terms of income and wealth inequality.
Sen. Sanders is also against big money in politics. As a candidate himself, he has raised over $15 million with 87 percent of his donations being less than $250. He believes that, under Citizens United, corporations are treated like human beings and are able to fund an undisclosed amount of money to buy the elected officials of the corporation’s choice.
As Sen. Sanders states on his website:
"Today the top one-tenth of 1 percent of our nation owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined. One family, Walmart’s Walton family, owns more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined. Nearly all of the new income growth since the recession has gone to the top 1 percent."
Wow. That’s astonishing. The gap between the richest and poorest people in this country has been widening, and at this point, it’s wide enough for the entire overly funded United States Military to march through it. The rich get richer while the poor working class works longer hours for smaller wages.
We live in one of the richest countries in the world, yet so many people live in poverty. So many children are hungry. So many veterans are homeless. If we truly do live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, why isn’t it showing?
He even goes as far as to call for a reformation of Wall Street. The typical Wall Street businessmen we think of are what many Americans see as opportunists or living the "American dream." Men like Jordan Belfort or Alan Stanford who made billions of dollars at the expense of others. Sanders also states on his website:
"The six largest financial institutions in this country today hold assets equal to about 60 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. These six banks issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards and over 35 percent of all mortgages. They control 95 percent of all derivatives and hold more than 40 percent of all bank deposits in the United States. If a bank is too big to fail, it’s too big to exist."
All these great ideas for change, a better way of life for this country and the people that live in it and a no BS attitude, yet Sanders is still being overlooked by major media.
Don’t let the United States become more corrupt and more divided than it already is. Don’t underestimate Bernie Sanders. Feel the Bern 2016.
