Of course, there are literally millions of reasons to vote for Bernie Sanders (yes, I am using the word literally correctly), but I’ll try to narrow it down a bit, for the sake of simplicity. This is still going to be a longish blog.
1. Saving the planet. That is, by far, the most important issue and Bernie Sanders, it seems, is the only one who’s taking it seriously. Joe Biden says if you want to ban fracking you should vote for someone else (may I suggest Bernie Sanders) and Elizabeth Warren failed to oppose the Dakota pipeline, which is now spewing oil worse than that car I got for $600 back in the 80s.
If we don’t save the planet, the future will be dystopian at best, and completely devoid of human beings at worst. In addition to that, Bernie’s environmental plan will create so many jobs that unemployment will virtually cease to exist, and some of those jobs will be renovating homes (to be energy saving) and giving them to the homeless. Three birds with one stone. I like that.
2. Universal Health Care, his signature issue. Aside from the economic benefits (much easier to start a small business if you don’t need to worry about health care, preventive care saves money, and eliminating the insurance companies eliminates a lot of paperwork) it’s a moral issue. When the technology exists to save someone’s life, or just to alleviate their suffering, then it should be done. What kind of horrible people would even object to that?
3. Legalizing marijuana. I’m a bit of a pothead (O.K., maybe more than a bit) so this one’s important to me personally. Also, though, legalizing it would make it available to those who need it for medical reasons, and it would be one less thing the police would have to bludgeon the people with.
4. Ending private prisons. Seriously, whose bonehead idea was this in the first place? When it is possible for some people to make money off other people’s misery, the people making money will do everything in their power to increase that misery.
5. Getting money out of politics. We have, at the moment, three billionaires running for president (Trump, Steyer, and Bloomberg) Does anybody think they give a rat’s ass about helping poor people? An election should be a matter of debates, held on neutral territory (every American high school has an auditorium) and with neutral judges (or at least an even number of judges chosen by either side, to be fair)
6. Eliminating student debt. That would help a lot of people out, and therefore go a long way toward jump starting the economy. Eliminating medical debt, too.
7. Free college. It will reduce unemployment (by keeping newcomers to the work force in school longer) and, within 4 years, the U.S. will have a better educated, better trained work force. Again, good for the economy.
8. $15 an hour. Wow. Talk about an economic impetus. If all the people making less than $15 an hour suddenly start making $15 an hour, there is going to be a flood of spending, which will help all sorts of businesses thrive. Some people say this will force businesses to hire less, but in every city where it’s already been implemented, it has not had that effect.
9. He’s less likely to start wars than any other candidate with the possible exception of Tulsi Gabbard. He was one of the very few in congress to oppose the Iraq War.
10. Electability. If your only concern is getting rid of Trump, then Bernie is definitely your man. He’s a likeable, plain spoken guy with no scandals in his background to speak of. (No other candidate can say that) If anybody were more scandal-free than Bernie, that might be suspicious. He takes no corporate or PAC money, so he has no conflicts of interest. The only argument the Republicans have will be to constantly shout ‘Socialist!’ at the top of their lungs, but they’ve been doing that for over half a century now and it’s lost a bit of its impact. They might start shouting ‘Jew!’ but that’s likely to backfire. Outside of the wackadoodle evangelicals who think the president is appointed by Jesus, most people aren’t really that paranoid about Jews. The wackadoodle evangelicals are all voting for Trump anyway, and their numbers weren’t enough to prevent a black guy from being elected, so the Jewish thing isn’t going to be a big deal, either.
Bernie has support in virtually every demographic, and it’s huge support among minorities, youth, women, blue collar workers, and the poor. That’s well over half the country.
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