Dear Upper Middle Class -Yes, it is expensive, that’s the point.
I’ve been watching Bernie Sanders release plan, after plan, after plan. Each one more bold, more sweeping and yes — more expensive than any of his competitors.
Bernie Sanders is accused of railing against the establishment, the oligarchs, the billionaires, PACs, corporations — anyone that stands in the way of dismantling a system that is broken and favors the ultra wealthy. He’s predictable. He’s gruff, stern, and unyielding. He looks disheveled, unkempt and just like he did in 2016. His mission hasn’t changed. His rhetoric is a repeat of what he said in 2016, 2008, 1999, 1984….that’s Bernie.
The difference in 2020 is that he’s not pulling any punches. Free college, a single payer healthcare system, and a $15 dollar an hour minimum made both Republican and Democratic heads explode in 2016. Now, everyone accepts those as the base for where you must start in 2020. He started there and shook up the bottom floor of the basic platform Democrats must run on and he then opened a lighter and flicked a match to a tank of gasoline for 2020.
His platform is taking 2016 and magnifying it to the point where his dedication to those policies put him in a stratosphere of his own. No one comes close. They all take parts of his platform, the ideas, and water them down for what they fear the people can easily digest. But what everyone else, pundits especially don’t understand is — Bernie’s platform is expensive on purpose.
For 50 years the wheels in power have only worked for the very wealthy. We can sit back and point blame and there is buckets of blame to go around. Pundits commit to this exercise daily. And often to their own futility. But we’ll leave them for another day.
The reason Bernie’s policies are so expensive and expansive in relation to their dedication is we have five decades of corruption, rot, and destruction of the middle class to make up for. We have fifty years of union busting, private insurance company greed, lobbying, war machine destruction and a failed drug war that has decimated the country for all but about 2,000 ultra wealthy citizens of the United States.
And you want Bernie to succeed — especially if you are middle to upper middle class and here’s why: growing inequality will affect your life immediately and with dangerous consequences.
Without immediate overhaul of healthcare, we will continue to bleed healthcare workers, nurses, doctors and home health care aides. You might like your health insurance now and co-pays may not affect your budget that much but when people can’t afford to be trained to take care of your elderly parents, or take your temp in the ER or properly insert an IV — that affects you. And with 40–50% of doctors’ time spent on fighting with insurance companies, they can only devote a competent level of care at 60–50%.
Without an immediate overhaul of the college/university/trade school tuition and debt structure in America, it you will affect you. Every year the number of high school seniors who go into Education to eventually become a teacher drops like a rock. We have a teacher crisis. You need good teachers for your children.
We have a primary doctor shortage, because college students know they can’t afford $300,000 in medical debt. You will need a primary care doctor and one that was educated well.
We have a tradesman crisis. You want your furnace technician or mechanic to be trained. You will need to depend on the hope that they know what they are doing. Inequality will affect you first.
Without an aggressive Green New Deal that pushes the boundaries of what we thought were possible — the “moon shot” of our time, your subdivisions and myrtle beach vacation spots will be affected first. If we don’t force our government to address these concerns your water will be no different than Flint. Your power will be shut off at certain times during the day just like your neighbor in the apartment complex down the street. You’ll experience the heat and the devastating storms like everyone else. You need an aggressive Green New Deal.
Without a radical criminal justice reform policy, cops will continue to escalate who they target it. Who they gun down. This will only escalate to political affiliation. We already know Customs is demanding to see the social media accounts of people reentering the country. When you go to Cabo or Cancun for spring break, your social media will be searched. You need to champion real criminal justice reform.
Without a concentrated effort to reform Union rights to collective bargain, to strike, and increase membership, wages on a whole suffer across the country. Strong unions help elevate even non-union jobs. They elevate the bargaining position for workers, for you. You want strong unions and better workers rights to safety, bargaining, and representation because it affects your wages too.
When you look at everything that needs to be done, when you pull back the veil of the inequality, pollution, violence, and growing fascism that’s been festering on the systems of our country — there isn’t any other choice. Our course redirection MUST be big, deep, and aggressive. We don’t have time. We don’t have another 10 years. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.
It’s no surprise that the largest supporters of his policies are the younger generations, people of color and immigrants — the next election affects them the most. They see the writing on the wall. A planet on fire, no end in sight to crippling debt, no job growth, stagnant wages, housing crises, endless wars, a legal system that doles out guilt or innocence based on wealth, and a government for sale. They see it — because they have to be prepared to endure it.
Yes, Bernie’s plans are expensive, radical, aggressive, and wide sweeping — that’s the point — that’s how far behind we all are. I hope you’ll join us, either way, we’re fighting for you too.
