The people who support Sanders already understand the issues Sanders was raising in the last debate.
I am not going to compare and contrast. I will attempt to explain why I support his approach and the issues he raises.
I appreciate the fact that he “sets the bar” high...for too long we have had to settle for half-measures and “pre-negotiation” that leads to ever increasing compromise AND ironically accusations from the right of not being willing to compromise!
HEALTHCARE
The ACA was filled with compromise and over 150 amendments added by the GOP who basically succeeded in gutting the law and then walking away from the version that was compromised in vain to get their support!
Senate Dems adopted 161 amendments and key GOP planks while soft-pedaling the public option. That's not compromise?
ETHAN SHERWOOD STRAUSSwww.salon.com/...
Almost no one is noting the extraordinary influence Republicans had on the healthcare reform bill crafted by the Senate, as it made its way through the committee process last year. The bill approved by Sen. Christopher Dodd’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, for instance, included 161 amendments authored by Republicans. Only 49 Republican amendments were rejected out of 210 considered. Yet the bill got zero Republican votes when it passed out of the committee.
Those amendments included:
- Allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do
- Give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower healthcare costs
- End junk lawsuits
- Let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines
Maybe most disturbing to liberal Democrats, the White House didn’t include the public option in the outline of the strong healthcare reform compromise the president wants to see. Even though Obama seems ready to use reconciliation to pass elements of the bill, he’s telegraphing his unwillingness to use it for the popular but controversial public option (even though, at one time at least, it likely had 50 votes). The final concession: Sen. Jay Rockefeller, once the public option’s most ardent supporter, now opposes using reconciliation to pass the measure because he fears it would be too divisive.
So instead of just the OPTION Sanders is proposing SINGLE PAYER!
Minimum Wage
$15 Minimum Wage - No “caveats”...no conditions...
“The movement to create a living wage for all American workers everywhere is not called ‘Fight for $12, or maybe better if we can get it somehow.’ It is called ‘Fight for $15’ for a reason. America has to end the insane policy of mandating a minimum wage which almost requires the worker to be supplemented by food stamps in order to eat. This is nothing short of corporate welfare, because it shifts these costs from the corporations to the taxpayers. Nobody working full-time should be eligible for benefits, because their wages should be high enough to live on. Period. This means fifteen bucks and hour, and nothing less. If this is the minimum wage across America, it will create an absolutely level playing field because no business anywhere will be able to get away with paying less. We need to fight for a living wage for all. We need to accept nothing less, and Congress needs to make that crystal clear to the next president. Fifteen dollars an hour. Period.”www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Social Security
Scrap the cap! No “caveats”...no conditions…
— the Social Security tax is the most regressive in the entire tax code. It taxes all earnings up to a certain amount (roughly $120,000), and then all income over that amount is not taxed.
Actually Sanders should go further than raising the cap but his proposal is consistent with his income inequality position
To fix Social Security once and for all, and to provide a hike in benefits, there is one simple solution. Collect Social Security taxes on every dollar that every worker earns. Period. Right now, every firefighter, every teacher, every nurse, and every cop on the beat who makes less than $120,000 a year pays a flat 6.2 percent into Social Security. But someone who makes $150,000 is paying less than five percent. It gets worse as the incomes skyrocket, too — at $250,000 you are paying less than three percent, and at $750,000 less than a single percent. Someone making five million bucks a year pays less than one-tenth of one percent into Social Security. Just by scrapping this cap altogether, enough money would be generated to assure Social Security’s solvency for 75 years and even allow for more generous benefits to be paid out. The time has come.
Foreign Policy-
Yes his supposedly “weakest” area!
- Clear opposition to committing US troops to fight in reckless wars
- Commitment to not engage in militarily enforced “regime change”
- Balancing concern for Israelis with concern for the Palestinians
[Sanders] has demonstrated [compassion] for the suffering the Palestinian people have endured living under occupation. On this critical issue, Sanders not only has the best position of any candidate in the race—he has the best position of any major party candidate in decades.
James Zogby www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Campaign Finance Reform
NO to Super Pacs-setting the example
Citizens United -NO caveats...no excuses
There is JUSTIFIABLY no trust in our current political system.
The vast majority in the U.S. — 84% — believe money has too much influence in political campaigns, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released Tuesday. The feeling cuts across party lines, with 80% of Republicans, 90% of Democrats and 84% of independents believing campaign cash plays too big a role.
And the general consensus is the current political campaign funding system needs a complete makeover. While only 13% said only minor changes were needed, 39% want to see fundamental changes and 46% want it to be completely rebuilt.
www.msnbc.com/…
In fact corporate influence has resulted in elected politicians focusing virtually ALL their time and efforts on legislation that benefits corporations at the expense of the American people. I have posted this quote before but it is central to the issue of corporate influence and money in politics
“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
Why? Because purchasing political influence is 100% legal.
For example: Let's say a big bank wants a law that would force taxpayers to bail them out again if they repeat the exact same reckless behavior that crashed the global economy in 2008.
It's perfectly legal for our bank to hire a team of lobbyists whose entire job is to make sure the government gives the bank what it wants. Then, those lobbyists can track down members of Congress who regulate banks and help raise a ton of money for their re-election campaigns. Its also perfectly legal for those lobbyists to offer those same politicians million-dollar jobs at their lobbying firms.
They can also literally write the language of this new bailout law themselves, then hand it off to the politicians they just buttered up with campaign money and lucrative job offers. And it's perfectly legal for those politicians to sneak the lobbyist-written language through Congress at the last second.
If that example sounds oddly specific, that's because it happened in December 2014. And it happens all the time, on almost every single issue, with politicians of both parties.www.upworthy.com/...
Sanders isn’t afraid of “unilateral disarmament” in fact he has the courage to take “unilateral” action and is showing a candidate CAN take that position and still raise money and get votes!
Additional Positions(a partial list)
All clear with no conditions and no “caveats”
Tuition Free Public College Education-the new standard beyond guaranteed High School
Fracking-No excuses for continued dependence on a finite energy source that has a devastating environmental impact
Capital Punishment-No excuse for the government being involved in killing its own citizens
International “Corporate” Trade Agreements- NO excuses to give global corporations sovereignty over our nation's laws at the expense of the American citizens...the TPP was written by corporations and would hand over control to a “board” comprising the same corporate lawyers that WROTE the deal…
Climate Change- No half measures No apologies for a taking the same position that most activists have taken...The Paris Accord did NOT go far enough. Sanders believes only aggressive immediate action can offset the future impacts of this global crisis.
Summary
Sanders is a unique and exceptional Presidential candidate- I never thought I would have the opportunity to vote for a candidate that actually promotes issues that matter to me...issues the Democratic party has unfortunately seemed to put on the back burner...basic one’s like education, single payer health care, raising the minimum wage, opposing the neocon aggression of the GOP, recognizing income and wealth inequality,AND of course actually doing something that shows true opposition to a corrupt corporate financed campaign and political system that prevents any really progressive change!
Sanders is rejecting the notion the tactic of self-negotiating a position...he is setting the bar higher and in so doing is showing he is a LEADER and a FIGHTER for the American people and not simply a FOLLOWER.
More importantly than that...Sanders’ campaign isn’t about Sanders...It’s about us...the American people!
Sanders campaign is a movement composed of people who want to see real changes to our rigged economy and want to reform our corrupt political finance system so that elected politicians and our government truly represent the best interests of the American people rather than the interests of powerful corporations and the wealthy.
Mostly I appreciate the fact I can now freely say these things without being accused of being an extremist...Sanders is showing that political positions many other politicians on the left have been afraid to take aren’t the radical outliers we have been led to believe.
Sanders actually HAS already started a “revolution” in American politics!