Bernie Sanders is on his second run for the presidency, and this time he's confident he'll take it home. Bernie is the most progressive candidate, and maybe even the most progressive US politician and while he failed to secure the Democratic nomination back in 2016, here's a list of reasons why Bernie is good choice, if not the best.
He's got the most progressive agenda
The rise of Donald Trump can paradoxically be explained by both Republican and Democratic neoliberal policies that have undone the American middle and working class. Deregulated corporations, tax cuts on the rich, austerity for the poor. Bailouts for the undeserving elite, debt, and lowered wages for you.
Yet, these conditions have also been breeding grounds for a more progressive movement, as we can see by the look of candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, as well as newly-elected Members of Congress. When it comes to progressive, though, you have to hand it to Bernie Sanders.
Here’s what you can expect from Bernie as laid out by Jacobin Magazine: “Medicare for All, free college tuition, and student debt relief, a Green New Deal with an ambitious jobs program, strong climate-conscious environmental regulations, universal child care, massive investment in public housing and education, a national $15 minimum wage, expanding Social Security, banning predatory lending, strong pro-union legislation, ending corporate tax giveaways, mandatory paid sick and family leave and vacation, gender pay equity laws, dismantling private detention centers, demilitarizing the police, banning for-profit prisons, ending the War on Drugs, ending voter suppression, stopping illegal bombings, ending the War on Terror, non-interventionist foreign policy, and on and on.”
Only Sanders calls himself a Democratic Socialist
Language matters very much in US politics, which is why nobody would risk being called a Socialist, a word so associated with the United States’ 20th century archenemy that it would be poison for any run-of-the-mill politician. But Bernie isn’t a run-of-the-mill politician, he's an unapologetic Democratic Socialist.
In 2016, Sanders violated the language taboo and went on to set the record straight on what it really meant to be a socialist and how much Americans owe to it and, better yet, could gain from it.
Why else would there have been an unusual mention of socialism on Trump’s State of the Union address? The president clearly signals a shift towards the left among Americans. And he's scared.
Besides, polls clearly show Sanders as the most popular candidate in the race. Other Democratic candidates get only a fraction of his support. Elizabeth Warren has half as much and Kamala Harris only a third. It's time for them to endorse Bernie.
Sanders is the only one who can take on Donald Trump
Are you unsure about a strong left-wing candidate? Let me replay what happened in 2016: many saw Hillary Clinton, not only as the most pragmatic and feasible of candidates, but an as appropriate, centrist antidote to Donald Trump’s chauvinist populism. Instead, her detractors accused her of being a Wall Street ally and part of the establishment, which she was. I don’t need to remind you how that turned out.
This time, Democrats have two choices: to go with the staunch progressive who kickstarted a Democratic shift towards the left or choose a moderate, market-friendly candidate (right, because that turned out just fine last time). The only one who can really beat Trump’s myriad of liesis a politician who speaks to the working class needs’ and who meets their anxieties with a positive vision for a better society.
He’s an old white dude, but this old white dude is on the right side of the fight
As far as old white dudes go, Bernie is the best there is. Other candidates will say he cannot, or will not, represent the interests of women and people of color because he’s none of those things, but symbolic representation will only get you so far. Sanders proposes reforms that would transform everyone's lives for the better, including the lives of women and people of color. These include reforms that tackle unemployment, low wages, underinsurance, student debt, underfunded public education, and housing disinvestment, all of which unfairly and disproportionately affect people of color.
Furthermore, polls have continuously shown Sanders had a 73 percent approval rating among African-Americans, 68 percent among Latinos, and 62 percent among Asian-Americans. And a January 2018 poll found that 59 percent of voters of all races under 34 view Sanders favorably, while 55 percent of them would be inclined to vote for him for president.
He’s not a flippin' flip flopper
For four decades, Bernie has been championing policies like universal health care (so in vogue nowadays among Democrats) and has spoken against US foreign intervention and capitalist policies that have been hurting the American people for too long.
@berniesanders
Unlike other Democrats, Bernie isn’t just riding on a progressive wave. He is the wave.
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