My Case for Bernie
By: David Soll
Tags: Medicare For All, Rise Up, Bernie Sanders

May 26th, 2015, the day America’s Dad, Bernie Sanders first announced his intent to run for president gave new life to an ongoing political revolution that continues on today. His entire political career has been largely based on the same message since at least 1972 when he penned an opinion piece months before Roe v Wade in support of women’s choice. Although one could argue it started the day he was arrested protesting segregated housing in Chicago in 1963. Bernie has continued to speak truth to power for over forty year without missing a beat. Add in his constant reminders for regular folks to run for political office from dog catcher to Congress because he knows no president can make substantive change alone. That’s integrity in action.

In his 40-plus years serving the American people as mayor, as the “amendment king” of the House, and now as Senator that until 2015 Bernie had been largely ignored by the media, portrayed by his detractors as being too far to the left, a communist, a socialist, a radical whose entire platform was rainbows and unicorns. Yet here we are today and magically, pun very much intended, every Democrat running for the nomination has grabbed a hold of portions of Bernie’s platform, a platform most of whom were calling fantasy barely two years ago. None, save Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) were interested in making their voices heard back then on the importance and need of Bernie’s most notable platform issues; Medicare for all, tuition free college, $15 minimum wage, criminal justice reforms, and combating global climate change are today trying to make the case they are worthy of your vote.

Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is at best 70% Bernie, at worst 75% HRC (unlike Tulsi Gabbard who bravely resigned as 3rd vice-chair of the DNC in protest of their treatment of Sanders in 2016 who then strongly endorsed Bernie for president) refused to endorse Senator Sanders at a time when her voice was so desperately needed back in 2016. Now she wants you to believe she’s a good progressive despite not being willing to thumb her nose at the very status quo that made Trump even possible in the way Mrs. Gabbard was and still is willing to do. Today, the very same establishment that laughed at Bernie’s platform is now “warming up” to Mrs. Warren as an alternative to Bernie. I wonder why?

With that said, I am nonetheless one hundred percent convinced Senator Warren to be an unapologetically strong advocate for the economic rights of the people. That short of her gaining the Democratic Party nomination, I absolutely believe she should become the Chairwoman of the Senate Banking and Finance Committee. Banking and finances are without a doubt Senator Warren’s strongest suit and she deserves to be there as she is the only Senate Democrat who has the guts and willingness, maybe even more so than Bernie to take on and stare down the “too big, to fail” Wall Street banksters that nearly took down the entire global economy in 2008 due to their collective insatiable greed and recklessness and not blink.

As for Bernie Sanders, does his recent mild heart attack and subsequent stent procedure mean he’s unhealthy or should drop out of the race? Of course not! The procedure is common even among 20 year olds. In my mind, there should be a money bomb sent to Bernie for every article, thread, poll, or news segment that attempts to attack Bernie’s overall health and age. And just recently AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib announced their endorsement of Bernie, and it turned out AOC had called Bernie while he was resting in the hospital to tell him the news. (As of this posting Ayanna Pressley, the fourth member of the Squad has not endorsed any Democratic candidate)

It is a tossup whether Elizabeth Warren could defeat Trump if she were to become the nominee. How she ultimately runs her campaign would determine the end result. Of the remaining candidates there is little hope of any of them, save Tulsi Gabbard exciting the base or receiving much crossover votes to defeat Trump. In my mind there is little doubt that Bernie is the only Democratic candidate who can defeat Donald Trump’s faux right-wing populism and hurtful and hateful rhetoric with relative ease. Because Bernie is the only presidential candidate with which no article could be honestly written that calls out flip flopping, hemming, hawing, or lying by Bernie. He consistently gets 25% of Republican votes in Vermont and there is little reason to believe that won’t be the case across the nation next November.

For more information on Sen. Bernie Sanders, please go to berniesanders.com. I now leave you with this truth bomb; for every bad decision our government has made these past forty years, you’ll probably find a YouTube video, newspaper column, or magazine article of or from Bernie warning us of dangers ahead, that’s integrity in action.