Why I’m supporting Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders’ announcement this week that he’s running for president in 2020 was no surprise. But while I expected a negative response from some Democrats, I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the swiftness with which the anti-Bernie attack machine within the Democratic Party sprang to life after a few years’ slumber. Activists, pundits, and randos on social media are dutifully trotting out every one of the tired old tropes about Bernie, hoping that one of them will stick:
- Elitism/Exclusion: “He’s not even a Democrat! How dare he run in our party?”
- Ageism: “He’s sooooo old. Looks like he could fall over dead any minute!”
- Centrism/appeal to the status quo: “We don’t need a leftist/socialist. What we need after four years of Trump is someone competent at running the government.”
- “Fiscal responsibility”: “How is he going to pay for all this stuff? His proposals sound great, but they’re pie in the sky!”
- The mythical “Bernie Bro”: “Bernie’s supporters are all affluent, misogynist, hateful white men!” Actually, no. That said, I’ll take this moment to urge my fellow Sanders supporters to not act like assholes online.
All of these, some of the most common intra-party critiques of Bernie Sanders, are pretty weak on their face. I won’t get into addressing each one individually, because I’m here to talk about why I’m supporting Sanders. Suffice it to say that these critiques — from Democrats, mind you — are exclusionary, reactionary, and in some ways, problematic as hell.
These “critiques” get to the heart of why a Sanders candidacy is so compelling to millions of Americans, because they reveal the reflexive and vicious response engendered by any serious attack on the status quo. To Sanders supporters like myself, any blow against the status quo is a welcome change of pace for a credible candidate for the presidency. For many Democratic Party activists and insiders, on the other hand, a Sanders candidacy represents a terrifying, existential threat to their power within the party. We see millions of fresh faces joining the political process; these insiders see waves of interlopers storming the gates. And just like in 2016, you can expect the vitriol to only increase from here.
That’s not to say there aren’t legitimate criticisms of Bernie Sanders. He is far from perfect. I think it’s important that I acknowledge his shortcomings upfront. They’re summed up best in this paragraph from The Intercept:
The junior senator from Vermont has also made his own series of gaffes and misjudgments, especially on race and identity issues, and needs to do much more to woo older black voters in the South. He has been far too reluctant to challenge the racism and bigotry of the Trump base and far too eager to blame the president’s 2016 victory on “economic anxiety.” On foreign policy, Sanders has moved further to the left since his clash with Clinton and is “quietly remaking the Democrats’ foreign policy in his own image,” but he still has a long way to go.
I hope that he and his campaign team shore up his blind spots and shortcomings, and his pick of Faiz Shakir as his campaign manager strikes me as a sign that he is very serious about this. I remain convinced that his candidacy represents the best hope we have of arresting out-of-control income inequality, combating climate change, and addressing a whole host of other important issues.
Here’s why I’m supporting Bernie Sanders for president once again in 2020:
- He understands and talks about class. We like to pretend our country is class-free, unfettered by the sorts of constraints on people’s liberty to pursue happiness. But the reality is that our country has socio-economic class divisions the likes and scale of which are among the most stark you’ll find in the modern era. By openly discussing class we can begin to address the systemic underpinnings that keep us stratified along these line and start to build a new world in which freedom and democracy are not just political buzzwords but a material reality for our people.
- He recognizes — contra Elizabeth Warren — that we are not dealing with a good system infected with a few bad actors, but a bad system functioning basically as intended. Capitalism is the problem, at a systemic level. Tweaking at the margins to create a kinder, gentler capitalism may alleviate some suffering in the short-term, but it won’t work in the long run. Now, Bernie is no wild-eyed Trotskyist by any means; he’s a democratic socialist, making him effectively a center-left candidate by any European political metric. But he recognizes that the problems we face as a society — crumbling infrastructure, massive wage/wealth inequality, expensive and ineffective healthcare, and corporate control over our lives and our political institutions — are systemic in nature, and will require a response on a scale commensurate with the problem.
- Bernie also recognizes that the decline of the so-called “middle class” has tracked neatly with the decline of unions in America, and he has a plan to help revive labor unions. We know that unions have been the most important mechanism by which working people have come together to fight for better wages and working conditions. Restoring the ability of workers to organize is an essential element of any serious plan to raise wages, improve the lives of ordinary people, and expand democracy in the workplace.
- The ideas that Bernie has been championing for decades, often as a lone voice screaming into the void until recently — Medicare for All/Single-payer, college for all, a $15/hour minimum wage, labor law reform — have become mainstream. That they’ve become standard fare among virtually all of the serious 2020 Democratic contenders is attributable to Bernie’s communication style, and the campaign strategy he’s pursued. His 2016 campaign proved, and his 2020 campaign likely will prove further, to be a successful vehicle for promoting and normalizing these ideas even more. That is a good thing for the country, and something that all progressives should be celebrating.
- If we are to defeat Trump in 2020, we need a candidate who is authentic, someone who will name names, identify the problems, and rally the masses around the solutions. The notion that “we need a centrist” to take on Trump is a total farce. The people crave a candidate who they can trust to take on the system, be a voice for the voiceless, and inspire us to believe in accomplishing big things again. No one is saying that Bernie’s ideas won’t be difficult to bring into being. No one is saying that finding funding won’t be a challenge. But we rarely ask these same tough questions when we’re launching a new war, or passing another round of tax cuts for corporations and the rich. We fund and pay for the things that we make a priority, and I support Bernie’s priorities.
- From purely a messaging standpoint, we need a candidate who will meet people where they are. Here, I will address one of the above criticisms head-on: if it’s seems like Bernie is always angry, it’s because we all damn well should be! Our country is being picked clean by oligarchs, plutocrats, vulture capitalists, whatever you want to call them. Living standards are plummeting, wages are stagnant, our healthcare system is abysmal, and it’s all because a fraction of the top 1% of wealth holders has a greater share of our nation’s wealth than the bottom 50%. So yes, Bernie is angry and I am too. Are you? If not, you should be.
- Finally, on a pragmatic political level, Bernie Sanders is among the most popular political figures in America. Democrats who engage in nonsensical, fratricidal attacks on him and his supporters for not being “real Democrats” risk alienating two major groups — young people and the left — who are simultaneously among Bernie’s most fervent supporters and also the least likely to turn out in appreciable numbers in the general election. To sideline and/or malign Bernie and his supporters on such exclusionary, elitist grounds is not only a bad look for “progressives,” it’s also bad politics. Why on earth would any serious political party wish to shove aside millions of potential voters just because they’re shocked and offended that Bernie Sanders — who caucuses with and serves in Democratic leadership in the Senate! — won’t “join” the Democratic Party?
I could go on and on, but I won’t. I personally find a lot to like about some of the other candidates, namely Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown. I even like what Andrew Yang is saying about universal basic income. I wrote this in no small part to better formulate for myself why I will once again be supporting Bernie Sanders for President.
Finally, I want to make one thing clear: I do not think Bernie is perfect. None of the potential or declared candidates are perfect. Indeed, no person is perfect. Additionally, I don’t see electoral politics as a panacea for all of our ills. I strongly support robust social justice movements, street politics, and a diverse array of strategies and tactics for achieving equity, justice, and democracy for all.
For me and, I trust, millions of my fellow Americans, having a candidate with the guts to take on the ruling class is a rare and exciting thing. I intend to support the eventual Democratic nominee, whoever it ends up being, because the imperative to remove Donald Trump from office is of utmost importance.
Primaries give us the opportunity to have a robust discussion about our values, our priorities, and our vision for the future. I urge all who are as passionate as I am about income inequality, restoring the power of unions, combating climate change, and many other issues, to give due consideration to Bernie’s candidacy, and commit to joining together with others in pursuit of a more just and peaceful world for all. Nothing less than our continued survival as a species is at stake if we do not remove Donald Trump from office and begin the difficult work of rebuilding from the damage that has been done.
*Note: The views expressed here reflect my personal views only and do not reflect those of my employer or any other affiliated organizations with which I am involved.*
