The Case for Bernie from an Expat
The Case for Bernie from an Expat
by beachten
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By now most of us are familiar with what Sanders means when he calls himself a 'democratic socialist'. He insists that the US, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, can afford to provide its workers with paid vacation time, with universal health care, with a free college education (again, something Hillary does not support). He knows that we have the wealth to improve our nation's infrastructure--every time I return to the US, I'm horrified by how dilapidated this country has become. The position of many Hillary supporters is that (some of) these things are pie-in-the sky dreaming, unrealistic, and unattainable in the US. There is indeed some truth to this--Republicans are committed to obstructing social progress.
But this attitude reflects just how far we have fallen, how far right our discourse has gone, how deeply disconnected we are from the rest of the world, particularly northern Europeans, who view the US with a combination of horror, disgust (at our foreign policy), and at times, sympathy. They fundamentally do not understand how we still do not have single-payer health care, strong public education that is state subsidized from preschool through specialty training or university education and beyond, unemployment benefits, job-placement and paid retraining services, paid parental leave, generous pensions, and more (much more!).
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My point here is that we will never get there if we don't plan it, and if we don't demand it. And we will certainly NEVER get there by supporting a candidate that is silent on what should be viewed as basic workers and human rights. I'm not even getting into foreign policy or Wall Street--again, no need to get into Hillary's relationship with Wall Street--we know what it is. But it should be obvious to all that without a fundamental change of the role of Wall Street and corporate power in our nation, none of the social values our party should support will be realized.
So when you tell me that these "socialist" values are not realistic, and that most Americans won't vote for them, I'll tell you that the only way to bring this country back from the abyss the right has taken us is to fight for these values and support the candidates that best represent them. The choice is obvious.
More:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/30/1416741/-The-Case-for-Bernie-from-an-Expat
= new reply since forum marked as read
That's why, for too many, the choice isn't obvious. 
I'm voting for WHAT I want this time. 
This election is on the ISSUES and the U.S Supreme Court and if anyone doesn't see what this right wing majority court has done to the worker then you don't get it.
When we had a justices that stood for the worker, education, and other facets that helped this society we moved forward, that is a fact, what we have now is corporate oligarchy developing right before our eyes, enabled by this court.
There are many other ISSUES that need to be dealt with and we can do this, that is why I support Sander's , at least I know where my money is going and will go.
Honk----------------for a political revolution Bernie 2016
