I don’t think my political leanings will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me. As the Democratic primary heated up, I chose to focus my energy not on Facebook, but on supporting my candidate by phone banking to help build the campaign’s Get Out the Vote database. But as my friends in Michigan get ready to vote tomorrow, our Washington votes will be counted at the same time, and Ohio prepares for their primary on the 17th, I wanted to make one more public case for Bernie Sanders.
I fear that Senator Sanders may be the one shot my generation has to move this country towards a more fair, a more equitable, and a more just society. The broad policy planks that will enable that are well known: Medicare for All and the elimination of private insurance, a Green New Deal to address the impending threat of climate change and boost the economy by creating good paying jobs, housing security via creating more housing for Americans and securing housing for those with precarious living situations, and tuition and debt-free public colleges (including HBCUs) and trade schools.
There are plenty of people in the established political class, even those in the Democratic party or self-described “Never Trump” Republicans, who look at these policies and say, “Too radical.” They long for a return to “normal.” I defer to a friend of mine who said it better than I ever will:
“Normal isn’t worth it when that system has repeatedly failed the most vulnerable and in-need people. ‘Radical’ politics is compassionate politics.”
The Sanders platform is about this kind of “radical” compassion and using political power to serve all of society. And it’s not just the considerable power of the office of the President, but the power to present and fight for a vision of an America that can be and that welcomes all and creates a safe and secure place for them in terms of housing, and health, and economic opportunity. Bernie Sanders has done that for his entire political career. He’s been a leader on LGBT rights since he was mayor of Burlington in the 1980s, just like he’s argued against American military interventionism and cited the proliferation of the military industrial complex as a driver of wealth inequality.
Just a few hours ago, Joe Biden was quoted on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC show as saying that if a Medicare for All bill passed the House and the Senate, he would veto it. He said this on camera, in the middle of a developing public health crisis that will likely see a meteoric spread due to the cost of testing and the un- or under-insured forgoing testing and treatment due to a lack of paid leave, and spreading the disease further into communities where it becomes more likely to infect those at higher risk of serious complications and death: the elderly, the immuno-compromised, and others who cannot afford treatment. This is representative of a party establishment who has no interest in actively making lives better for the poor, and the working class. This is a party establishment invested in the broader status quo; who will fund raise of GIFs of a clapping House speaker and then agree to a White House budget that increases spending on barbaric policies they claim to #Resist, or “negotiate” the approval of federal judgeships to facilitate extra days of “campaigning” (aka fund raising) for the party establishment.
A Sanders nomination is a repudiation of this political thinking. It is support for a broad coalition of young voters, including young African Americans, latinx voters, Muslims, and those who want to reject the conventional wisdom that has marked “politics as usual” for our generation. And to say we’re too radical?
This may be the one shot we have to create the world we want to live in and pass on. Are you willing to fight for someone you don’t know as much as you’re willing to fight for yourself? We know how American oligarchs answer this, and how that’s kept us from seeing a better future.
Democratic primary voters have a clear choice from here until the convention. It could not be more stark. There is only a 100 or so deelgate difference. We can create something more than we’ve been told is possible. Please, stand with Bernie.
You say “attack,” I say “side-by-side comparison of public servants’ voting records.”