5 Reasons Bernie Sanders Does Not Have My Vote for the Democratic Nomination
by Camilo Arenivar
Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the former Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, the man who served in the House of Representatives for 17 years and in the Senate for the last 9, is running for President as someone outside of the “political establishment”. Initially a Socialist, he served in Congress as an Independent . In 2015, he filed to run for President as a Democrat.
I do not support his run for the Party’s nomination and here are my reasons why:
1. His “Political Revolution” Has No Realistic Path to Success
He has a an agenda of sweeping reforms (free college and healthcare) and he believes that a “political revolution” will change the things that block such agendas from passing now. A political revolution is a leap of faith I just can’t make. Let me tell you a little something about me.
I’ve been a long time Obama supporter and while he’s accomplished much, it’s been hard with Congress, even when we had control of the Senate and House. I’ve worked phone banks during the Midterm elections to help further the Obama “change” that he cannot do without Congressional support. I’ve learned some painful lessons about how government works and what a President can and cannot do without the support of Congress. I’ve also learned painful lessons about how passionate people during a Presidential election disappear when it comes to trying to vote out representatives and senators. The reason I don’t believe in Bernie’s revolution is because I have been through this before. A vast majority of those presently in his “political revolution” will forget about politics after the election, just as the Obama voters did. People come out for a General Election and then that’s it.
Another thing that is startling real is that the Opposition is stronger and more well funded than you could ever believe. A political revolution is meaningless if you don’t have the rest of the country along with you. And you have to really look at all of the states and what that would actually mean and take a look at the big picture in the reality of it all.
As I said, I’ve been here before. It is the painful experience of trying to implement progressive change against staunch opposition that makes me adamant that Sanders is delusional. Things are worse now in Washington and in America as far as the divide between “Progressives” and “Conservatives” than it ever has been, with both sides passionately motivated to cancel out the vote of the other. As a good friend recently pointed out, He’d need a complete turnover across the country to give him a congenial Congress.
2. General Election Problem # 1: His Socialist Past Will be Negatively Exploited
A Gallup poll as recently as June 2015 found that only 47 percent of Americans would vote for a socialist if their party nominated one, while 50 percent said they would not. The GOP does not take him as a serious threat — yet. Once they do, Bernie has a ton of fodder for sinister TV ads. In the 1970s and 1980s, he used to advocate for the overthrowing of companies by the Government. One such industry was the television industry. He urged for people to “address the control of television as a political issue, and organize to win.”
But that is mellow compared to 1985’s Bernie Sanders. He’s on video making favorable statements regarding Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during an interview on CCTV Center for Media & Democracy’s Channel 17/ Town Meeting Television, Chittenden County’s local government access station.
Also in 1985, he traveled to Nicaragua, where he attended an event that one wire report dubbed an “anti-U.S. rally.”
These are things that most Americans have not heard about, and that’s because Democrats are not going to bring them up. But you can BET the GOP will air commercial after commercial portraying him as a weak pro-Communist anti-American candidate for President. People think Hillary with her email and Benghazi non-issues are bad, or her evil Goldman-Sachs speeches, there is a whole generation or two who will find this stuff a LOT worse.
3. General Election Problem #2: He wants to raise taxes
I am not too concerned about rising taxes, but I kind of think a good deal of the electorate is not too thrilled about. Sanders proposes the following: a 6.2 percent increase in payroll taxes; a 2.2 percent increase in income taxes on everyone; higher estate taxes; taxing capital gains and interest as ordinary income; limiting tax deductions for the rich; and higher income-tax rates on the upper brackets.
This is not how you win a General Election! Democrats running for Congress will run from this platform!
4. General Election Problem #3: ZERO Foreign Policy Experience
This is not as important to me as it is to a nation that saw the Paris attacks in November 2015 and the homegrown terrorism in California in December. Those looking for someone who has some kind of experience with foreign policy and dealing with terrorism are going to run from this guy.
5. He is Anti-Democrat!
I am a lifelong Democrat. Bernie Sanders is a lifelong Socialist and Independent. He has a long record of scorning the Democratic Party. I don’t reward someone who has not supported our candidates even if he caucuses with them frequently in Congress. How does a President who does not believe in other Democrats work with them and lead them. How does he even work with Republicans?
In Conclusion
Bernie Sanders is not a bad man. He is a good man, with some great ideas. But they are just that - ideas. And all he has to implement them are ideas. Ideas that do not fly in the present political reality and he offers no explanation on how achieving a “political revolution” would be done. Therein lies the problem. Again to quote another friend who said this about Bernie, “As an X-Files fan, I find myself saying, I want to believe.” I too, want to believe, but my experiences teach me better.
The road to achieving his plans is not based in political reality. I cannot support a candidate who should know this after being in Congress for 25+ years but seems not to. I’ve been here before, and this time, I choose “the insider.” I choose realism over idealism.
