In 2016, I supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) first presidential campaign, and it was evident when I decorated my wall with the Bernie 2016 bumper sticker I received after donating $5. Though I dreamed of a sudden shift in the primary race, I knew fully well that Sanders was unlikely to win the nomination that year. Nonetheless, his bold, progressive vision for America spoke to me and sparked my engagement with politics. Now, hot off the heels of victory in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, Sanders is quickly emerging as the frontrunner this time around. More moderate candidates like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg help him by splintering the remaining share of the vote. Sanders is the Democrats’ best bet to defeat President Donald J. Trump in November. This election presents us with a rare opportunity to realize the fundamental social-democratic reforms that the American working class needs.
Sanders’ platform directly addresses many of our country’s greatest crises and does so far more boldly than the rest of the Democratic primary field. His hallmark single-payer Medicare for All health-care proposal would provide health care to every person in America, abolishing premiums, copays, deductibles and duplicative private insurance; in so doing, it would reduce both health care’s overall macroeconomic burden and its individual costs to middle-class families. While proposals from former Vice President Joe Biden and Buttigieg would move our country further toward universal health coverage, neither would be as far-reaching and consequential as Sanders’ plan. Their policies would merely create a public insurance option alongside our existing private system. Under such plans, profit-driven private insurers would likely price out the sickest and oldest patients, effectively forcing them onto the public plan, which would skyrocket costs, sabotage the reform and hamstring future attempts to make bold changes to our broken healthcare system. Nearly 45,000 Americans die annually in a manner related to inadequate health coverage. In plain terms, this is a nationwide epidemic, and only Sanders is prepared to address the crisis with the transformative action it necessitates.
While health care is perhaps his key issue, Sanders has much more to offer to many different types of voters. Other key objectives on his policy agenda include making public colleges and universities tuition-free for all Americans, canceling all student debt, mobilizing to reach 100 percent renewable energy and enacting a foreign policy that seeks to end unnecessary, costly and deadly wars in the Middle East. There’s something in there for everyone; whether you’re a laid-off employee in a Midwest factory town, a college graduate plagued by burdensome student loan debt or an armed services member with a young family at home, Sanders has a plan that would benefit both you personally and our country as a whole, more so than any other candidate.
Despite absolutelyunrelentingattacks from mainstream media on both sides of the political spectrum, Sanders remains an immensely popular figure among Democrats, and he’s clearly emerging as the favorite to win the nomination. Just last week, he drew a staggering crowd of over 17,000 at a rally in Tacoma, Wash., far outpacing his primary opponents. He also leads the RealClearPolitics 2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination polling average by over 11 points as of February 26. Unlike many of his opponents, Sanders is also consolidating his support among non-white voters, a voting bloc essential for success in the upcoming primary states. As Sanders continues to gain support off momentum from three consecutive popular vote victories, he’s on track to secure the nomination later this year, a testament to the strength of grassroots enthusiasm against obscene wealth and corporate greed.
Even so, the primary will have been pointless if Trump wins the general election in November, and most Democratic voters prioritize beating Trump over their concerns on specific policy issues. Fortunately for them, Sanders has a better chance of ousting Trump than anyone else in the Democratic primary field. RealClearPolitics’s general election matchup polling shows him leading Trump by an average of four points. This performance is topped only by Biden, whose floundering campaign is unlikely to survive Super Tuesday, and billionaire oligarch Mike Bloomberg (seriously, don’tvoteforthisguy). Perhaps more striking is a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll that showed Sanders defeating Trump by 18% among America’s all-important independent voters. Sanders’s proudly progressive politics, a stark departure from the liberal technocracy of the Clinton-era Democrats, would no doubt bring economic prosperity, jobs and a newfound sense of hope to the Rust Belt towns that gambled on Trump and lost four years ago.
If you’re concerned about Sanders’ socialist label impacting his electability going forward, allow me to remind you that the same was said of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his proposed Social Security Administration. But it passed easily and was quickly signed into law; now, any plans to cut funding to Social Security are met with bipartisan outrage. Roosevelt welcomed the hatred of the moneyed elite, and so does Sanders. Bernie Sanders is the strongest candidate currently running to become President of the United States. He’s the right candidate for our era, and I urge you not to miss your chance to vote for a truly brighter future.
Zach Ball (20C) is from Griffin, Ga.
