Bernie’s Still the One

Bernie Sanders will continue to have my full support for his bid as the Democratic Party’s nominee for President of the United States through the convention, and up to the general election in November. What he, his campaign, and his supporters have managed to do is begin the long pull of the Democratic party out of it’s long-held boggy center-right position toward the left side of the political spectrum, where the party should be

He had my support right from the very beginning when it was rumored that he’d run as an Independent before affiliating with the Dems. A move which sparked an outcry of “He’s not a Democrat!!” from the establishment, by the way. That sentiment was correct though; he is not a Democrat. He unequivocally advocates for what the Democratic Party as a whole continually fails to muster enough gumption to advocate for. The Democratic Party is not advocating for paid family leave, single payer healthcare, livable minimum wages, stark Wall Street reform, and domestic spending on capital and infrastructure improvements.

The Party’s not advocating for breaking up the 4 banks that control the collective wealth of tens of millions of Americans or calling for the Family of 6 that controls a fortune greater than the wealth of the bottom 42% of Americans combined to pay their 2.2 million employees (of the world’s largest company by revenue) livable wages to get them off of Medicaid and food stamps.

The Democratic Party isn’t calling for an overhaul of the tax code to put a halt to middle and lower-middle class Americans paying higher marginal tax rates than upper class Americans. Or for closing the loopholes that permit American based companies to hold their profits offshore to avoid taxation.

The Party isn’t calling for the expunging of predatory student loan debt obligations that saddle our new college graduates with unlivable financial burdens they acquired as a result of being told ‘you have to get a college degree!”.  The Party isn’t calling for taxpayer funded college education, and I’m not just talking about 4 year degrees. I’m talking trade professions, 2 year associate’s programs, and certifications to get people in well-paying, stable jobs right out of school.

The Party isn’t demanding we address the reasons why 40% of the children in my school district (and 32% of kids nationally) live in poverty, the reasons healthcare costs bankrupt Americans or why in the world the majority of new income created since the crash of 2008 is being routed to the pockets of the richest Americans rather than the pockets of those who lost their single biggest, and perhaps only, investment: their home.

Income inequality has been derided as Bernie’s single-issue campaign item. The term ‘income inequality’ isn’t a single issue. How do I know that? When I define income inequality and list contributing factors, that list far exceeds one single item. Lack of access to health care, food insecurity, job insecurity, poverty, education, unequal application of the judicial system, massive banks controlling and gambling with everyone’s money, massive employers not paying livable wages, massive corporations avoiding taxes, massive corporations buying political candidates, obscene student loan debt, stagnating wages overall.  That’s a short list but they’re all interconnected to ‘income inequality’ and Sanders is rightfully plucking each one of those connecting threads and they’re resonating.

The Democratic Party has not solidified and come out swinging, advocating an on-the-whole progressive platform like they should be, something this website, its contributors, and Sanders himself regularly criticizes the party for. A party which has, again, settled for “We’re not the Republicans”.  I know, I know “but the two party system! We can’t let the GOP win!” I get that and agree with it.  However, we can do more than one thing at a time. We can advertise that we’re not Republicans AND go after the lists of things I wrote about in the preceding paragraphs because those things are all detrimental to this country.

So yes, Bernie Sanders doesn’t embody what a 2016 mainstream Democrat is. He embodies what a 2016 mainstream Democrat should be and the support base that has been championing his messages is what the Democratic Party should be. And no, I don’t mean a 70 year old Jewish guys from Brooklyn. I mean progressive. Democrats should be progressive and, dare I say, liberal. Sanders has started to bring the progressive core of the Democratic Party out of a decades long hibernation and he’s succeeding in getting the newly awoken to help wake up people sleeping next to them even with the national media and blogosphere downplaying his significance.

Would President Bernie Sanders accomplish everything he says he wants to accomplish?  Nope. Though, accomplishments that result from his presidency would be further to the left and thus more in the best interests of a majority of Americans than proposals being touted by the other candidates.

Aim for the stars but settle upon the moon as opposed to blowing up on the launchpad, or being stuck in a low-atmosphere orbit.

His messages are also my messages. And those messages need to be the Democratic Party’s messages. That’s why I have and will continue to champion Bernie Sanders for President of the United States.