Radical Rationalism: The Tale of a Young Con’s Change of Heart (How I Came to Love Bernie)

“Thomas, do you know what capitalism is?” my dad asks me, a young person of about sixteen. “Of course; its when private industry controls the means of production and stays out of the free market. It’s what we practice here in the United States,” I reply. Satisfied with my answer, he follows-up, “Now, do you know what socialism is?” “Yeah; it’s when the government controls more of the means of production and has a stronger hand in the market. It’s what they practice in many places in Europe.” “Which one is better for the economy?” he then asks. “Capitalism, obviously. The less the government is in the market, the better,” I answer. “Now, what do you think President Obama is, a capitalist or a socialist?” “He’s a socialist! The stimulus package is the most socialist piece of legislation since the New Deal. Socialism just serves to halt economic growth and prop up the lazy.” “Right!” he answered, “Obama wants to create a nanny state in which everyone is dependent on the government. Therefore, everyone’s taxes will increase and we will be imprisoned in a progressive era of socialism. Freedoms are going to be steadily taken from us. Big government is bad and is contributing to the downfall of our country. We need as little government as possible. Trickle-down Reaganomics are what this country needs to get back to.” I agreed. Shuddering at the concept of evil progressivism and losing freedoms, I wondered, “What could possibly be worse than Socialism?”

In America, Socialism has always been something of a four-letter word, and I saw it as such. If you had asked me back when I was sixteen what I thought of Bernie Sanders, you probably would have heard something along the lines of what I said about President Obama. A socialist who is only interested in maintaining power over all people through dependence on a European-style “nanny state”. Someone who wants to do away with American Exceptionalism and suck up to the rest of the world, while the rest of us cry, “Where has our country gone?” Bernie is just a crazy old man from Vermont, stuck in liberal la-la land. He could use a dose of Republican reality!

My how things have changed. I sit here at Pitt’s Hillman library, sipping coffee, procrastinating other more important assignments, proudly donning one of my Bernie t-shirts that my mom had gotten me. If you ask me now why I think Bernie should be president, I would tell you he is the only person in the race I trust to run our country, the only one who understands the problems we face as a nation, the only one who has a plan to fix them, and the only one who is willing to be both idealistic and pragmatic. All things America sorely needs from its leader.

Not that sixteen-year old me wasn’t intelligent or that my dad forced me to acquiesce to his ideals, but as a young person, I didn’t have the willpower, let alone the energy to do more research into the “evil empire of socialism”. Conservatism is in my blood, and I was content to concur with my ancestors. My grandfather, for whom I’m named, was a good Republican, and my father, too. Dad was knocking on doors for Barry Goldwater in Delaware in 1964! The epitome of a lost cause, but he did it with pride. Twenty-nine years later, I was born, a seven-pound, five-ounce Republican baby. In fact, some of the first words I ever spoke were, “Clinton Bum”! I rallied for Bush in ’04, supported McCain in ’08 with my high schools’ Young Republicans, and voted for Romney in 2012. Despite my early political involvement, I quickly became jaded by American politics.

After Obama won his re-election bid in 2012, involvement in politics began to seem pointless. It dawned on me no one in politics really cares about getting anything done or helping the people if it means costing themselves votes. As the race for the nomination in 2016 began, I was somewhere between Trump, Rubio, Paul, and Kasich, not exactly enthralled by the selection. Besides, my dad and I had long left this election for dead, both believing Hillary would surely win a decisive victory over anyone the Republicans could muster. But being a Political Science major (and future cop), I felt compelled to do my “due diligence” and at least do some research.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, my opinions used to be on the side of the Republican party, but it became harder and harder for me to justify them. I would repeat arguments taken from my dad and drew on some limited research. Economically, I agreed with Republicans that a small government was a good thing, but socially, especially as a young person, I had serious reservations. I was born and raised a Christian, going to church twice every Sunday. However, my views on religion, too, had begun to change. A few years ago, I began to separate myself from religion. No particular reason behind it, but I just couldn’t really believe in God or religion anymore, in favor of scientific explanations. I can appreciate people who are religious, but that’s just not who I am anymore. Consequently, I lost interest in supporting “Christian values” and developed a disdain for the “preacher-man” politicians (Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Santorum, etc.) as I viewed them. Instead, I began to agree with the Democratic party on many issues; gay marriage, legalization of marijuana, renewable energy, etc. I became a man without a party or candidate, so I defined myself as a libertarian. Maybe I could support a lost cause like Rand/Ron Paul. At this point, I felt content to sit back and launch the occasional opinion from outside the box, while redirecting my energies into other pursuits and, for a long time, that was that.

Watching one of the Democratic debates, I was shocked by the striking distinction between the two candidates. Hillary came off to me as an insincere, typical politician and Bernie as a fiery old man, who seemed to cover the podium, the crowd in front of him, and the entire country in old socialist sweat. His convictions were astounding and his commitment to his causes truly admirable. It was apparent this was a man who has been raging against the machine and fighting the good fight his entire life. Bernie has never been the general who sits back and commands his troops from relative safety, rather he is the one brave enough to stand at the front, drawing his sword, and leading the charge himself. Moreover, he spoke more as a friend of the common man and less as a politician than any elected official I had ever heard. This is where my admiration of the old Independent senator from Vermont began, and I decided to continue my investigation.

Reading into his background, I was shocked! No skeletons, no big surprises, no large-scale mistakes that could come back to haunt him. His character, unquestionable, unabashed about who he is or for what he stands. The only dirt people throw on him was that he is a socialist, a label which, although a misrepresentation, he has embraced. However, the most astonishing fact I found, was the grassroots nature of his campaign. He refused large contributions, only taking donations up to five-hundred dollars. I was flabbergasted to say the least. A politician who isn’t bound to the rich people funding his campaigns? Does such a thing even exist? It can’t be true, right? Huh, interesting.

The intrigue continued. People told me that he didn’t have a plan and, if he did, it was obviously ludicrous. I investigated these claims and was shocked to find that every penny he wanted to spend was accounted for. Do I believe that his ideas are feasible? Well, maybe not every single one of them, but more on that later. It began to dawn on me that this was a man that knows what it takes to run the country and is a slave to no one. No one, but his own convictions. And that’s what I believe American politics needs. Call it “youthful idealism”, but I disagree. A well-respected man, trustworthy, with strong convictions, and who is brave enough to stand-up to even the mightiest of opponents can be America’s next great president.

I used to be on the rowing team at Pitt, and I still go to our gym every once in a while to drop my stuff off or just to say hello to my former teammates. I was gathering my belongings to head to class one afternoon, when I overheard two of my teammates talking, let’s call them Don and Ivanka. A rally and march for Bernie in Pittsburgh were planned for a few weeks in the future, and the two were laughing about it and how Bernie is just a big joke. “Hahaha, yeah. I’m going to go there and wear my anti-Bernie hat and Trump stuff. I’ll say, ‘Wait is this the wrong place?’” They had a good laugh. “You can go **** yourself!” I hissed, irritated by their condescending remarks. I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. “Oh, you must be a liberal then!” Don scoffed. “No!” I retorted, indignantly, “I’m a just a free-thinking person who loves his country.” “Well, whatever man. Call me in ten years when you’re fifteen grand in the red and can’t find a job because of his socialist plans!” Don replied. “Fine, you call me then when Trump is president and we have Blackshirts marching up Fifth!” I retorted. I’d had it with listening to his opinions.

In reality, Don is a friend of mine, and we have had less confrontational discussions since. He is a finance/business accounting major, and to be fair, he does know what he is talking about to some extent. “Trump will make our economy lean and mean again. He’ll make the United States a great place for business,” he explained. “Meh,” I replied, unconvinced. “I still think Bernie’s plans are still stronger.” “Does he even have a plan?” Don replies, dismayed. “Yes he does! Every penny he wants to spend is accounted for! He’s not Mussolini, promising everything is going to be fixed, that even the trains will run on time, while not really giving anyone much of a plan.” “Fine, but I still think Trump is better. The only thing I really don’t agree with him on is the ban on Muslims,” Don admits. “Well, I’m happy you’re not a fascist then!” I reply, shades of humor in my voice, and we share a laugh. “Well, what are you politically then?” I ask. “I’m a libertarian, but I really care about Israel,” he explains. “I was a libertarian, too, and I can respect your feelings about Israel. I’m not well-versed on that topic and I can respect your heritage. So, if we agreed, why are we arguing then?”

I was baffled how two libertarians, at one point possessing very similar views, ended up supporting polar opposites, and it took me a while to figure it out. It seems that what we are both studying has shaped our world views. As a business/finance major, he sees the benefits of a free-market economy with minimal government intervention, and some of his views are respectable and well-founded. I mean, I would have agreed with much of what he said twelve months ago.

On the other hand, studying politics has colored my worldview a lot differently. Economics are crucial to the success of a regime, but not the be-all end-all. Throughout my political science studies, I have studied political and social revolutions across the globe, development of post-Cold War international relations, the fall of the Soviet Union, the IRA, among other things. Above all, I’m a student of history. Thus, I am more concerned about the rise of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, climate change, the growing inequality in this country, our crumbling infrastructure, and the future of international relations, rather than purely about how many jobs are created. As a result, I believe that is why I support Bernie. I have to admit, though, it does feel nice to agree with most people around you (bleeding-heart college students).

After learning about Bernie, his platform, and his campaign, it occurred to me there was really only a slim chance of him taking down Hillary for the nomination. I thought, how tough will it be for the political machine to take down a man who they can essentially equate to a four-letter word with little effort? What happens to American politics if he loses the primary? Trump v. Hillary? I shudder to think of a race between those two greedy people, who do and say whatever they believe will get themselves elected. Am I on my way to supporting a lost cause again?

As time went on, it became apparent Bernie is indeed here to stay, refusing to be pushed out by his own party or discredited by the Right. Although he started off far behind Hillary in the polls, he has ridden a virtual tidal wave of momentum to make it a mostly even race. He closed gaps in Iowa and Nevada, two key states in the primaries, along with nationwide polls. Not only that, he has done better in polls against Republican candidates than Hillary! Bernie is definitely going to be around long enough for our voices to be heard. Once I realized that a politician who I believed in for a change actually has a chance at victory, the political fire part of me as a young man reignited.

I became excited about politics again, eager to show my support and help get my candidate elected through any means within my power. Not having any Bernie stuff at the moment, I tacked the cover of a Time magazine with Bernie on the cover to my wall. “Socialize this!” was the caption. A small intro statement of my beliefs. From there, I began wearing Bernie t-shirts, buying Bernie bumper-stickers, and preaching the gospel according to Bernie. Just about everything the man said makes sense to me and much of it, at one point in time, had already gone through my head as well. It never occurred to me that what I actually believed in was considered radical.

For example, healthcare for everyone doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. We have the tenth highest GDP Per Capita in the world and have the second (only behind Tuvalu) highest total health expenditure, as % of GDP, yet our healthcare system is ranked 37th? That just doesn’t make sense to me. We are America, the greatest country in the world, but we can’t make sure all of our people receive the medical care they need? How can we call ourselves the greatest country in the world if we can’t heal our sick, feed our hungry, and take care of our veterans? Aren’t those the marks of a great country? Disgraceful. In order to rectify this, maybe we ought to take a page out of the book of European socialist countries, and enact something along the lines of a single-payer system.

Oh my God! Do you know how the European socialist countries are collapsing right now? Socialized medicine is too expensive to be feasible. You naive fool. I’m paraphrasing, but I’m sure that’s how many conservatives/Republicans would react to my previous sentence. My reaction is, then is it a fluke then that countries at the top of the WHO’s health care ranking list utilize socialized medicine? Fine, even if you can argue that socialized medicine wouldn’t work in the United States, what’s your plan? I haven’t read anything convincing from the Right about how to fix our healthcare system yet. Why not take some tips from the countries that have perfected it?

I believe that people who are on the Right sometimes fail to see the big picture. His plan is not just about health care, but is geared to put money back in the pockets of people who need it. Taxes may be a little higher, but the savings in the long run are worth it. A cursory examination of Bernie’s Medicare for All plan by politifact.com, reveals savings of between $505 and about $1,800 for working families. Granted, this isn’t the whole story; there are real flaws and ambiguities about costs, but this is purely the beginning. A starting point for a real discussion. How can we make health care affordable and available for all? I’m not going to profess to know everything about the intricacies of healthcare policy, but shouldn’t we do everything in our power to answer this question, even if it means Republicans holding their noses and raising some taxes on the wealthy? Some say it’s impossible, but we’re Americans. Impossible is our specialty.

One of the most fascinating periods of history that I have studied so far over the course of my college career is the period when the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the Cold War and communism was overthrown within a matter of months in Eastern Europe. The Poles were the first to end communism, having had previous revolutions put down. Once non-Communist Lech Walesa, leader of the opposition movement, was elected President of Poland, and the Soviets did not intervene, it was clear Soviet domain over East Europe had ended. From then on, one communist satellite state after another expelled communism in favor of market economies and free elections. Not long after, Reagan demanded Gorbachev tear down the wall, and he agreed. Finally, after decades of living divided, Berlin (and Germany, shortly after) was whole once more. Capitalism had triumphed over communism. It was the beginning of a new age.

This time period is not interesting just because of how quickly communism was overthrown, but how wholeheartedly. It was clear after nearly fifty years of communist ideological domination, the people were fed up. Soviet Communism was finally exposed as a morally bankrupt and illegitimate ideology, and once that happened, it just unravelled. The Red Army freed Eastern Europe from the Nazis in World War II, and were able to impose their influence and ideologies over these peoples, who were used to being ruled by empires. Communists built a command economy to repair nations decimated by two invading armies and nearly seven years of all-out war. At first it worked, people were happy and had jobs. They were rebuilding their nations with pride. But when it began not working, the people started questioning this ideology imposed upon them. Once the Berlin Wall fell, not a single country that had not built up communism on their own still maintained a communist regime. Only in Soviet Russia, Tito’s Partizan Yugoslavia, and small, isolated Albania did communism survive in Europe, but even those regimes were living on borrowed time. That says something about how tough it is to impose ideas on someone who did not first come up with them on their own.

In a sense, Eastern Europe and myself are similar, in a way, and not just because we speak Serbian (well, trying to anyway). Living in a Republican household, I held Republican beliefs just by osmosis. I really never took the time to discover and rationalize for myself how I felt politically, and it showed. When someone with dissenting views pushed me on a political issue, I gave more times than not. It’s hard to defend something when you yourself are not completely sure why you believe it in the first place. Once my beliefs took their present form, I began to feel much more equipped to debate someone from the other side. Granted, I’m still learning and figuring things out, but I know what I believe and why for a change. “Why are the people benefitting the most from the system paying smaller amounts back in to the system than the ones who need it’s help?” I began to wonder. It was something I couldn’t continue to support, no matter the empirical argument. From there, my whole view on politics changed.

I went from political apathy to feeling fired up about my beliefs, which nothing convinced me of but my own experience. The political ideology I now ascribe to is legitimate in my head because I rationalized it for myself. Rather than relying on other’s political thoughts, it’s nice to be able to produce my own. It’s made me more confident that what I believe in is right, and that my causes are just. As a result, I am more comfortable discussing issues and promoting political agendas because I understand the thought process behind it.

Basing my political beliefs on rational ideals is one of the most crucial parts of my platform, regardless if whether the common thought is they are rational. My stance on health care is just one example of how something very rational to me is in fact something radical. Reforming and improving education, drawing down military spending, constructing new infrastructure, taking more steps to reduce poverty all seem like rational plans to me. These are ideas that will benefit all Americans, especially the ones that need the most help. Bernie acknowledges this point I’m making. “My radical idea is that if someone works forty hours a week, they should not have to live in poverty,” Bernie reiterates many times throughout speeches and debates. I really don’t think there’s a single rational person who can disagree with that. He’s not saying if someone sits on the couch all day and collects welfare checks, they shouldn’t have to live in poverty. He’s not saying if someone works only a little, they shouldn’t have to live in poverty. This isn’t advocating for a “socialist welfare nanny state”, as some conservatives might say. Bernie is saying that if you work hard, you shouldn’t be in poverty. Isn’t that the Republican philosophy? Is that really something radical? Well, if that’s radical, then I guess I’m a radical, too.

This is the crux of why I support Bernie and why my views have changed so radically over a short period of time. Bernie wants a system where everyone who works hard can make a living, rather than if you’re lucky and work hard you can make a living. As firm as my beliefs are, I understand there’s no such thing as a perfect system. I have to admit, a Bernie presidency may not produce as many jobs as a Republican presidency, yes, and it may cost us more than expected. However, what are we willing to sacrifice for a few more jobs? Are we willing to let our environment, healthcare system, and education systems fall apart in favor of a little more money? That is where I believe Bernie differs from the pack. He understands the plight of the growing inequality in the country because he’s been there. Bernie is the child of Polish immigrants, and knows what it’s like to live in poverty. He has always advocated for the rights of those who don’t have a voice. He knows that for America to actually be great again, it starts with making sure our schools can produce educated, intelligent workers for the 21st century. He’s aware that American military involvement overseas is unsustainable and is costing us money better spent at home, and we need to work more effectively with our allies rather than policing the world unilaterally. He realizes our infrastructure is crumbling and modernizing is a big step forward. To those who question my choice of candidate, do you honestly believe Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or Donald Trump have the know-how, experience, and perceptivity to understand and fix these problems? Tell me, are more jobs really worth selling out our country to businessmen and perpetuating hatred? I sure as hell don’t think so.

This election is proving to be one of the most important in recent memory. We are very much at the precipice of history. Putin’s Russia is gaining power and influence; ISIS is recruiting the disenchanted from our society and plotting our downfall; race issues and inequality are spreading hatred and unrest throughout our country; climate change is threatening and by the time we notice it may be too late. So I ask, please, consider Bernie Sanders this election. Read what he stands for and you will realize he is not as socialistic or Marxist as people make him out to be. Don’t take his plans as final; they are the beginning of the discussion. Bernie likes to use the analogy of negotiating for a loaf of bread; he explains that if you ask for a loaf of bread, you will usually get about half or less, while if you ask for half, you will only get crumbs. From everything I’ve seen, I’m convinced he is a good person who wants to bring us together as a nation, rather than divide us based on our differences. Bernie’s vision for America is one where everyone is treated equally and, no matter your background, you can taste the benefits of Capitalism. Moreover, instead of following incendiary rhetoric, I implore you to embrace rationalism in politics. A rational discussion between equals, rather than an adversarial screaming match between enemies, is really how we will return the United States to greatness. Listen to the people who possess actual solutions, rather than delusions of grandeur. Pay attention to those not beholden to financiers with shady agendas and large offshore bank accounts. It’s time for us as Americans to show we won’t succumb to hate or be swayed by large sums of money. We need a radical change in this country. A radical change back towards rationality.