As a jumping off point let me point out that there is overlap between many of these policies/ issues. As you make improvements on one, it can and often does have a positive domino effect of others. But since Hillary’s latest smear/ disinformation talking point is that Bernie is a single issue candidate, let’s break down issues
Racial and Criminal Justice
Bernie has been fighting for racial and criminal justice. He has a comprehensive criminal justice platform that has been embraced by many leaders of the black community and many in the BLM movement. He has been railing on the floor of the house since the 90’s that without education and without economic opportunity people are more likely to fall into acts of desperation. But his platform and vision goes much further than that. He talks about demilitarization of the police force, police departments that match the diversity of the communities they serve, body cameras and other things that will create law enforcement that doesn’t disproportionately victimize communities of color. The economic aspects of this issue will be addressed later.
The Huffington Post’s August 11,2015 article BLM helps with Bernie Sanders’ Racial Justice Agenda states:
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has unveiled a comprehensive racial justice agenda aimed at "addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic." The agenda includes, among other policy proposals, a call for police demilitarization, community policing, aggressive prosecution of police officers who break the law, the re-enfranchisement of those with criminal records, banning for-profit prisons, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, automatic voter registration, making Election Day a national holiday, youth employment programs, free college and pay equity legislation. Sanders also has an excellent record on racial justice issues, much better than any other candidate running for president.
Universal Healthcare
Bernie is fighting for Universal healthcare for every individual as a right. He wants every American covered with insurance that they can afford (small tax increase on individuals with large savings on healthcare costs). We have the most inefficient healthcare system in the world, He isn’t fighting for a pie in the sky plan, merely one that is already being used by nearly every industrialized country in the world. One that will not only expand complete healthcare coverage to every American but also save our economy $5 trillion over 10 years according to a group of noted economists. One that will save families between $2,000 and $5,000 per year depending on what group of independent analysts you’re listening to. And save businesses on their share of healthcare costs as well.
Daily Kos: WSJ cited economist says Bernie’s plan saves the US $5.081 trillion on healthcare
Education: Free Public College and reduced interest rates on existing Student Loans
Bernie Sanders wants free public colleges to better educate the American workers to be more competitive on the global market. Along the way this will disproportionately uplift the poorest amongst us, who don’t even think that is a possibility for them. Helping people choking with existing student loan debt is also a part of this program helping the people who already got their education only to find that the jobs open to them were mostly ones that wouldn’t cover any quality of life and pay down that debt. If banks can borrow from the Fed at near zero interest then why cant we extend that to student loans to unwind what has been a bad/ toxic system of banks making big profits on education.
Equality
Bernie wants equality for women and has been advocating this for decades, getting a perfect score from Planned Parenthood and NARAL for his work on the issue important to them. He also advocates for equal pay for women and paid family/ medical leave for women after giving birth.
He has been a lifetime advocate for LGBTQ rights getting a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for his record on gay issues and advocacy. This was a fight he was on the front lines for when his opponents in both parties were fighting on the other side of the LGBTQ issues because the polling made it politically advantageous to do so.
He has been a lifetime advocate for Immigration reform, keeping families together and not allowing our current immigration policies to create a slave labor with either the under the table employment market or the guest workers programs.
Climate Change
Bernie is right to consider this one of the great threats not only to the sustainability of the planet long term, but also to quality of life and even homeland security. As resources like energy and water become scarce not only do costs go up, but the fight for those resources leads to instability.
Legalization of Marijuana
He is fighting logical drug policies and the legalization of marijuana on the federal level along with its removal from the controlled substance act. The current war on drugs has led to massive incarceration of Americans often disproportionately communities of color for non violent drug charges.
Economic Equality
Economic inequality of course feels real to anybody who graduates with a college degree and finds no jobs, or the people who have seen their wages stagnate or even go down during the recovery which finds most of the gains skipping the working class and going to the top.. The Free Trade agreements which were championed by the Clintons have outsourced tens of millions of good paying American jobs, Many whole industries have been crushed whether it’s the loss of manufacturing or the support jobs like customer support, data entry, accounting, etc. Along the way they have ripped the heart out of the labor movement as employers rather than negotiate wages in good faith draw unreasonable lines in the sand and threaten to ship the jobs overseas if they don’t agree to bad deals/ contracts.
The economic policy is far reaching and includes things like increasing the minimum wage to catch up with the 25 years of stagnation that have left not only minimum wage employees behind but a majority of wage earners who have been left behind by cost of living. When you increase the minimum wage, you are in fact increasing wages for many levels up the ladder as more skilled, experienced, have more responsibility or harder jobs will always be paid more… every time minimum wage has gone up in the past or even regionally we have found that people generally maintain their gap from the minimum and businesses don’t lay workers off (another common lie), they hire more as business expands when consumers have more money to spend. Consumers are the actual job creators.
Another way Bernie’s economic equality agenda impacts poor and disproportionately communities of color is that as you lift people up out of extreme poverty and desperation we find that not only does quality of life go up, but crime and other violent acts go down. So from a criminal justice standpoint you can greatly reduce crime without some of the more aggressive enforcement techniques we see rise in usage with crime rates like racial profiling, militarization of the police force. Of course this economic platform also overlaps with education as people crushed by student debt are lifted and have more disposable income while families who are currently saving for college for their kids can route that money elsewhere, while the poorest communities where college generally isn’t even on their radar can start thinking about a much bigger world of opportunity for themselves and their children. Universal healthcare is another area of intersection as our healthcare system is currently the most expensive and wasteful in the industrialized world. If we provide healthcare to everyone and at the same time save thousands of dollars in healthcare costs while only raising the taxes a fraction of those savings we again find that people’s budgets are healthier while quality of life again is elevated.
Under Sanders, income and jobs would soar economist says
Campaign Finance Reform and voting rights.
A rigged political system in which money gets what it wants at the expense of the people. We see this play out in two ways, In the first scenario we see positions move after a large donation or paid speech. The other way the corporate interests stack the deck is by putting their money with people they know will vote with them and workers or consumers. Either way this money threatens the very idea of democracy and a government for the people.
Voting rights have a long time history of being under attack as the establishment tries to make it more difficult for poor people to vote, creating obstacles. These laws disproportionately affect communities of color.
How everything in Bernie’s agenda is paid for
Foreign Policy
This is the one area where Bernie admits his opponent has more experience. But that said its important to remember that experience and good judgement arent necessarily held by the same people. Dick Cheney went into office with more experience than nearly anyone in the modern error and arguments could be made that he was one of the worst ever in the area of foreign policy. By contrast many of our Presidents have gone into office as a former Governor where they only focus on domestic policy. Senators have more experience on foreign policy since they get some of the briefings and are ultimately the ones who need to pay for war and other foreign policy programs. Bernie has been deeply involved with the Veterans where he has always argued that if we cant afford to take care of our veterans when they get home, we cant afford to send them to war. He is not one to rush into military conflict and never run into war for economic reasons. Often the toughest players on the global theater are the ones who make the biggest mistakes. The middle east and the rise of terror organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS can be directly linked to the destabilization of the region caused by our hawkish policies. Final note, the state department is only as strong as the intelligence community and career diplomats and strategists. Who the President surrounds his or herself with is ½ the battle and judgement is the other ½.
Foreign Policy and National Security
Hillary’s single issue: Becoming President
So that brings us to Secretary Clinton and her quest to become President. Bernie fights for people Hillary fights for Hillary. Bernie says us, she says me. She will lie to become President. She will claim to hold positions that are the opposite of her lifetime record and the videotape that shows her words in the past don’t match the words she utters on the stump. Her words today come closer to matching Bernie’s record, not her own and every day more and more people are coming to realize this truth.
Bernie is fighting for the people on many levels. He didn’t get into this to become President, he did because his lifetime record and issues needed a leader with a louder voice and the ability to bring about more change for the people. Hillary just wants to be President because somewhere in the bubble she has convinced herself and the establishment that it’s her turn.
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