Controversy has surrounded the issue of feminism this past week after Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright, popular feminist activists over the past few decades, commented that young women who don’t vote for Hillary Clinton aren’t true feminists. If this is an issue you’ve kept up with you’ll easily know how much backlash their comments have received. Feminists across the country have countered that although they agree it is time for a female president and has been for a long time, they are not so shallow as to vote for Hillary purely on that notion. I myself am an adamant feminist, which means I believe in the equality of the sexes, but I also believe in the equality of everyone – whether it be in race, sexual orientation, economic class, etc. And that is why voting for Hillary Clinton won’t be enough for me. Our country needs a president who can promote equality across the board, and the best candidate for that by far is Bernie Sanders.
America is often described as the cultural melting pot of the world, but we’ve more modernly also come to view it as a “salad bowl” rather than a melting pot because there are so many diverse “ingredients” that make it up but they each keep their unique identity rather than melt together. However, I’ve come to think of our country more as a salad bowl where the lettuce declared itself the best ingredient because it was supposedly there first and then pushed all the tomatoes and carrots and cucumbers to the bottom of the bowl and told them it was their own fault for not having the opportunity to be eaten because they didn’t work hard enough to be on top.
Most of the “lettuce” in our society is against Bernie Sanders because they don’t believe in Democratic Socialism. “How dare anyone suggest we give a little up so that everyone can have the opportunities we’ve apparently worked so hard for. We are a nation that has been built off of the hard work of the individual, not giving handouts to every lazy welfare queen who wants them.” Right? Wrong. We are not a nation built off of good hard work. We are a nation built off of oppression, from the first explorers who decided to claim this land as their own. We have not worked hard to get where we are. We have pushed others down and minoritized all other subgroups in society in order to get where we are today and it is time we recognize that and make it right. And Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who is truly passionate about our nation coming together as one and making a level playing field for all Americans.
Hillary Clinton has been widely viewed as a people pleaser by Sanders supporters lately due to her common tendencies of changing her beliefs and policies as often as the most popular trend changes. If you aren’t aware of her inconsistent tendencies, watch this.
She says what she thinks she has to in order to advance her career, rather than sticking to her own beliefs. Race isn’t directly addressed in the above video, but it can be implied that she isn’t fully dedicated to issues of equaling race either. Race was an issue Hillary started out her career being devoted to, but as she and her husband tried to plunge their political careers ahead, she left her ideas on race behind for a while to support the slightly more right-wing ideas of her husband’s presidential candidacy. And during her campaign run against Obama she was insensitive to the issue of race, in particular, his own racial identity and his supporters. Currently, Clinton and Sanders see generally eye to eye on the issues of what needs to be done to further race equality. But considering her flaky past with issues, what’s keeping her from changing her priorities again? Bernie Sanders has been a fierce activist for nearly all of his life. Although he has received small criticism over the years, he has been far more consistent and persistent than Hillary. He’s authentic, where as Hillary has been out for her self and her own progress since the beginning.
The income gap has been getting wider and wider and our country won’t be able to survive if it continues. People with money have the power. Which makes our democratic system much more vulnerable to corruption. Hillary Clinton has been receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funding from large corporations and organizations, while most of Bernie Sanders’ funding has come from many more sources contributing smaller amounts. Hillary is relying on these big corporations that are furthering the income gap to fund her campaign, so why would her interests be in helping the 1 percent? Bernie, on the other hand, knows the “strength in numbers” and by funding his campaign with the underdogs, we know he won’t turn his back on us in favor of the people with money. We need a more stable economy, which won’t come from a system that is so financially unequal. We need a president who authentically has the best interests of the middle class at heart.
As far as Democratic Nominees go, an authentic, passionate candidate like Bernie Sanders is what we need. American politics has enough people who make empty promises and have fake stances for the sake of progressing their own interests. Bernie is the realest thing we’ve seen and his commitment to making a more fair and equal nation is and always has been his priority. His words and promises match his actions, which is more than Hillary can say. If your chief concern is equality, Bernie is your guy, because as Emma Watson so wonderfully puts it, “feminism isn’t a women's rights issue, it’s a human rights issue.” And Bernie’s the Democratic candidate that’s going to address that best.
