Here is why I am voting for Bernie Sanders.
I have never voted before. I have never considered voting before. I am a part of the generation that the whole political process is afraid of right now. I am 23 years old and this year I will be voting. Who will I be voting for? Bernie Sanders.
No, I’m not a communist. No, I don’t want free stuff. No, I don’t want your tax money. No, I don’t want to turn the country into Mexico/Middle East and take away your guns.
So if I don’t want your money or your “stuff” and I don’t get food stamps….. why in the world would I vote for Bernie? I am voting for Bernie Sanders for a laundry list of reasons. It’s hard to even decide where to begin, but I will try my best.
I love America. I love an equal America. An America where everyone is given the best opportunities and treated fairly, with respect. This country belongs to us all. Black, white, homosexual, heterosexual, transsexual, female, male, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, and everyone else in-between. This means equality in the work place, marriage, at home, everywhere and for everything. Who better to fight for that than the man that marched on Washington with MLK, stood up for the LGBTQ community, who has stood his ground on religious equality and feminist equality.
Honesty. Does it exist in politics anymore? Some might say no. Most, actually, might say no. Once again the answer is Bernie Sanders. I challenge you to look back at his record, his speeches, his views, his voting, everything. He has been consistent. He doesn’t change his views based on what is popular. In most cases, he is on the unpopular side before it ever switches to popular. He never thought that he landed under sniper fire and he doesn’t take money from banks. He doesn’t side with the trade agreements, the fracking, the oil, big business, or any of the other special interests.
Many people say his ideas are radical and communist and so on. That makes no sense. Is the rest of the world a bunch of communists? These “radical” ideas are already implemented in almost all other first-world countries. Universal healthcare and cheap college for example. These ideas are not radical in any other first-world country except the U.S. Why must be trail behind in everything? Let’s pretend for a moment that Bernie doesn’t have a plan to pay for this “free college”. OK? Even without a plan… the estimated cost for this free college is 62-70 billion. For arguments sake let’s just shoot high and say 70 million. Estimates say that only about 57% of the United States even pay income tax. The U.S population as of 2014 was 318.9 million. 57% of 318.9 million is 181,773,000. So, let’s say that 181,773,000 people in the U.S pay taxes. If we took 70 billion and divided it between the 181,773,000 tax payers, then that would mean that we each had to pay about $385 a year. That would then mean that we would each have to pay $1.05 a day to allow anyone to go to college. 70 billion isn’t enough for everyone? Will everyone start going now that they can? No. This would be plenty of money. Community college is already almost free for just about anyone and is everyone taking advantage of it? No. Colleges would still have the grade requirements to get in so not everyone would get in. There wouldn’t be some massive flood of students that would make degrees worthless. This whole plan is ignoring the fact that Bernie has already laid out plans to almost completely remove this burden from us. We are tired of everyone having to be afraid to choose between college and life in debt.
Let’s move on since this is already getting pretty long and no one wants to spend all day reading this. I’m not a fan of big military spending. We already spend something along the lines of 8 times more than the next country on our military. This is a yuge waste of money. 13 billion dollar ships? 4 billion dollar ships? No thanks. Bernie would re-direct funds to more important things.
I’m a biotechnology major in college so I love science. Bernie does not ignore science. He wants to be on the leading end of turning this world toward renewable energy. Why are we just now doing this? Why are we running the world on a fuel that can run out when we have the sun, ocean currents, the wind, and so on.
Let’s not forget income inequality. I will keep this part short because anyone that knows anything about Bernie knows that he is yuge on this. Minimum wage has not followed inflation. People are making far less while the people on top make more. Once I am finished with college, hopefully I won’t have to worry about this, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a huge issue. People should not be working 40 hours a week and wonder how they’re going to feed their children or buy them clothes for school.
To wrap this up I will touch quickly on some other things that Bernie and I agree on. Immigration: I don’t want to let everyone in, but kicking millions of people out isn’t going to happen. Make them legal so they can pay taxes and join the world. What good does a game of hide-n-seek do for the economy? Abortion: can we just leave women to their own bodies? Republicans believe in small government and little interference with the people, that is, unless it’s the female body or marriage rights. Back off. Guns: you want to sue a gun company because their guns were used to kill? For the most part, unless they’re selling guns to a high-crime area, there isn’t much they can do. They can give the background check and everything else, but as long as the gun is purchased legally the company is breaking no laws. Are we supposed to just stop selling guns? Because I see no other way around it if we are going to punish gun makers for legally selling guns. There are more vehicle related deaths per year than gun related deaths and cars aren’t even made to kill. Should we sue my car company if I run someone over with my car? No. You sue if the gun malfunctions or a car malfunctions. Foreign policy: make other countries defend their area. Bernie called it before Iraq. When asked in a debate who was the biggest threat to our safety, ISIS, Russia, or North Korea, he picked NK and people thought he was nuts. What happened right after? North Korea started testing weapons and threatening the U.S, but he doesn’t know anything, right? I want to also mention that he called the housing crash of 2008 before it happened.
This year I will vote for integrity, the truth, a better future, and a better world. I will vote for the fight for equality and income inequality. This year I will vote for Bernie Sanders.
