Feel the Bern

So, today (with a week before the next primary), I have decided to endorse Bernie Sanders for President. Looking at the five remaining candidates the two Democrats stand the best chance of becoming president. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders defeat the Republicans with ease in polling that has been performed. The only Republican who comes close is John Kasich who actually beats Hillary Clinton one-on-one and is only three points behind Bernie Sanders. Sadly, though he is the most moderate of the three Republicans he trails far behind Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the delegate count and will need beyond a miracle at the Republican Convention to become the nominee.

However, I digress, this article is about Bernie Sanders. Among the five remaining candidates his ideas for America are the most sound and once actually considered are simply better for all Americans.

A lot of people get hung up on the fact that he is a Democratic Socialist. The reason for the trip up is understandable but easily fixed. Most people hear socialist and automatically think of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. This is both an error of thinking and confused thinking. For generations we were told how bad Socialism was and all we needed to look at were those countries to find out why. That is where the deception came in. All these countries shared one thing in common but it was not socialism, it was communism. Communism, while born of socialism is not the same as socialism. The distinction is easy enough to separate; Socialism is a political ideology, while Communism is more of a economic ideology, such as capitalism.

Socialism itself has long been in use in several countries, including the United States. The interstate system, the military, fire departments, police departments, even the social security system are all socialist systems designed to help Americans.

Democratic Socialism takes this a step further. While capitalism is still in use Democratic socialism tweaks it in a way that benefits all Americans instead of just the upper portions of society. We have been under democratic socialism before and our economy thrived. From the 1940s through the early 70s our middle class thrived on a form of democratic socialism, but this ideal was replaced by trickle down economics. The rich, who had previously been taxed at much higher rates than other Americans, now found themselves getting refunds of taxes. It was believed that the more refunds they received, the more they would return back to the economy. It failed as the rich simply put the money away. This failed economic policy has been in place since the 1980s and we have witnessed a complete collapse of the once thriving middle class, while the rich have gotten even richer.

Bernie Sanders wants to completely end trickle down economics and level the playing field. Naturally his opponents have clamped down on this stating that he wants to steal from the rich and give to the poor. While the idea of a Robin Hood in the White House in interesting this is not what he wants to do at all. Notice that I stated he wants to level the playing field. What he is suggesting is actually taxing the rich. Most taxes across the range would go up to some extent but the rich would be paying more, in other words they would be paying their share.

On to another misconception that Sanders' opponents have spread and that he just wants to give away free stuff. This simply is not true. The only two actual mentions of free that Sanders has offered is college and healthcare. Personally I do not see why this idea is so controversial. All of us have free education from Kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. Why should college also not be free? Why do we spend more on our military complex than on anything else? Should that money not be better spent on educating our children and providing health care for all? I say yes, I know many of you will say otherwise.

Another reason of my support of Bernie Sanders is his refusal to use dark money as most of the other candidates have thrived. All of his campaigning is from money from small donors (in other words the most they are able to donate at one time is $27 the average amount given by donors is $27). There are a few Super PACs that campaign for him, but he does not recognize them or support them. The only other candidate to come close to this is Donald Trump who is financing his own campaign.

Even though he is the oldest of the candidates he is also the most trustworthy to finally lead us into the 21st Century.