Political Revolution!
First and Foremost, I must reference the title of this article. A vote for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is a promise, a pact, a commitment to a movement we are calling a Political Revolution. Bernie starts most of his speeches with this:
“Let me tell you something that no other candidate for president will tell you. And that is, no matter who is elected to be president, that person will not be able to address the enormous problems facing the working families of our country. They will not be able to succeed because the power of corporate America, the power of Wall Street, the power of campaign donors is so great that no president alone can stand up to them. That is the truth. People may be uncomfortable about hearing it, but that is the reality.”
The key part of that statement is "...no president alone can stand up to them." We, as a nation have to rise up and tell those in office that they work for us, not for corporations. The reversal of The Glass-Steagall Act and the passing of Citizens United has been extremely detrimental to our country's democracy. Giving the power to the extremely wealthy by allowing shady dealings in Washington D.C.
Our campaign finance system in this country is now corrupt. Purchased by millionaires and billionaires, like the Koch brothers. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate without a super PAC. He has a detailed tax plan laid out that would increase taxes only 2.2% for 98.5% of the American people, except for the 1.5% of Americans that make more than $250,000 a year. This small increase will pay for healthcare for all citizens in this county. A tax on wall street speculation would allow as to make public colleges and universities tuition free. The American people have been complacent and complicit for too long in the face of corporate greed. The United States of America is the richest country in the world. A fact that the average American is unaware of thanks to a massive redistribution of wealth in favor of the top one-tenth of one percent of people in this great nation.
Many on the "right" like to cite Welfare as a problem in this country. However, the largest recipients of Welfare in this country are big banks and multinational corporations. After the crash of 2008, the big banks needed to be bailed out to the tune of $4.6 trillion dollars having been paid out. With our help, Bernie Sanders will break up these banks that are "too big to fail."
A related issue concerns the working poor. The Federal minimum wage is $7.25, a starvation wage which Wal-Mart pays most of it's employees, in some cases new hires even receive state welfare paperwork with their employee packets. Should someone who works 40 hours a week struggle to feed their family? Right now, in this country you can have two parents working 40+ hours per week barely getting by, one emergency away from financial ruin. This affects White, Latino, and Black people across this nation though, undoubtedly the minorities are more hard hit.
Bernie has been on the front line of Human and Civil rights activities. He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and staged a sit-in to protest segregated housing at the University of Chicago. He was arrested during this protest. At the same time Hillary was working for the Goldwater campaign, which was pro-segregation. While the Clinton's were promoting DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) in 1996, Sen. Bernie Sanders was one of the few legislators that opposed DOMA and voted "no" to discrimination against our LGBT brothers and sisters.
Bernie has a knack for seeing the big picture, the effects that passing or not passing a bill might have. He uncannily predicted the outcome of the Iraq war and the destabilization that followed and, rightly, voted "no" to the War in Iraq when it was an extremely unpopular view. He knows that war is a last resort, not the first option.
In most cases if you are going to be of voting age before the November Presidential election, you can participate in your states Primary (look up specific rules for your state). I beg you to become involved politically, don't be apathetic to what is going on in our nation. Research any candidate that interests you and get involved in your own Political Revolution.