The Realism of Bernie Sanders

I have seen many people, in the media, and on this site state that Bernie is all kinds of unrealistic.

I strenuously disagree with that.

He has seen the corruption, the insatiable greed, the endless tax breaks for those on Wall Street, the billionaire class, the millionaire class, and wealthy and powerful corporations during his almost thirty years in Washington.

He has seen veterans get repeatedly screwed over by the country they fought to protect.

He has seen people in his home state of Vermont being unable to get decent healthcare because they can't afford to pay the devil (the health insurance/drug companies) enough for it.

He has watched as almost every prediction he made about the Iraq War become a nightmarish truth.

He has lived through the offshoring of millions of good U.S. jobs overseas thanks to one corporate dominated trade deal after another, the NAFTAs, the CAFTAs, and the TPP.

Bernie has done virtually everything in his power combating these evils. He was known as the Amendment King in congress. He drafted and passed legislation that greatly improved the VA's services with Republican Senator and former Vietnam POW John McCain. He took fellow Vermont residents across the Canadian border to get the affordable healthcare they needed. He voted against the Iraq war and spoke, time and time again, against it. He has voted against NAFTA, CAFTA, and the TPP, siding with the little guy instead of the powerful corporations, technocrats, conservatives, and billionaires that have written these deals for their benefit.

Now he is calling for a political revolution in this country to counteract the continuous rape of America and the middle class that is going on.

Somehow we have been able to have endless welfare and socialism for the most powerful Americans but continuous budget cuts for such programs that benefit the poorest.

Bernie recognizes this.

He recognizes that it is wrong to go to war based on a lie. He recognizes that we should make our own products in America, not in China, or in Mexico. He recognizes that the minimum wage should be a starter wage, not a slave wage. He recognizes that no one who takes advantage of a corrupt campaign finance system can or will change it. He recognizes that healthcare should be a right of the many, not a privilege of the few. If Bernie were to become president he may never be able to get hardly any of his progressive proposals past an extremely conservative/corporate congress. But neither would Hillary Clinton as all her experience, while beneficiary, has made her one of the most polarizing figures of the century. Now is not the time to compromise with evil. Now is not time to continue to concede to the gun lobby, the healthcare lobby, the banking lobby and so on. It is time to fight them! To fight for things that should never be considered ‘pie in the sky’ promises such as single payer healthcare, stronger gun laws, pay equity, paid family leave, better funded education programs, affordable college, socialism for the poor instead of endless subsidies for the well to do.

Why should it ever be considered unrealistic to say that “yes we can” achieve these goals when we have managed to attain the greatest inequality, the greatest and most bloated defense budget, and the largest prison population compared to all other countries in the world? If we are able to make the system drastically worse for the many and continuously better for the few then the opposite is absolutely achievable as history has shown us time and time again.

Indeed, is it realistic for one to say that there’s no point in trying to make real change by starting a movement because the odds of it succeeding are considered too small? Is it realistic to say that one should continue to appease the powers that be instead of relentlessly pursuing real change because the status quo could be worse? No!

Someone once said today’s dreams, with enough effort and tenacity, are tomorrow’s reality.

The fact is, no one ever radically changed a screwed up system by constantly caving in and proposing half measures after building up an impressive past of standing up to the wealthy and powerful. No one ever did that while taking millions in speaking fees and campaign contributions from the very people who have screwed it up. No one ever did that when some people in their own party view them with little enthusiasm or excitement. The people who did change the course of the nation, who really shifted the balance of power in a meaningful way, were people who never stopped advocating for progressive causes. Theodore Roosevelt broke up the most powerful and dangerous trusts and he lended a hand to the nearly powerless workers with his Square Deal. FDR worked incessantly to bring America out of the Depression with his New Deal. These were people, both former Presidents, who advocated incessantly for progressive causes in spite of daunting odds. In the case of TR, Americans were seeing a concentration of wealth and power that harkens to the 1920’s and especially to today. For the vast majority of FDR’s presidency the American economy was in tatters where millions of Americans barely had enough to put food on the table let alone afford a second helping.

Today one family, the Walton Family of Wal-Mart, owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 40% of Americans while they pay a large number of their workers virtually unlivable wages. Some Wal-Mart employee wages are so low they need food stamps, social security, and employee food drives to get by.

That is ridiculous.

That is obscene.

And that is wrong.

And that sort of scenario is becoming increasingly common in modern day America. Don't get me wrong, Bernie has his flaws and Hillary is certainly an extremely knowledgeable person who is certainly up to the Presidential post. We should not be fighting against one another at a time when we need unity most, when our democracy is rapidly turning into a plutocracy.

So I say to you, it is time for a political revolution in this country.

Enough is enough!

#FeelTheBern

(this is a copy of an article I wrote on DailyKos)

@BAWSS5
@NomNuggetNom

 

Bernie is a presidential candidate. The media constantly publishes hit pieces knocking him for being 'unrealistic'. This topic post is a response to that.