I like Bernie because he is not business as usual. He is not beholden to corporate or banking interests, and not dependent on them for campaign financing. Beyond that, his platform is not anti- any sort of people. He understands the problems of average Americans and wants to address them. In his view, those needs are best met by giving them the chance to earn a decent living, first by backing an increase to the minimum wage. He wants to make sure no family is driven into bankruptcy by medical bills by providing universal health care. He wants to ensure the long term health of Social Security and Medicare by raising the cap on wages subject to FICA taxes. He wants to make sure people are not put into lifetime debt in getting a college education. He wants to halt the offshoring of jobs, which is facilitated by a tax code that shelters the overseas earnings of corporations. He wants to restore Glass –Steagall which kept commercial banks from entering other riskier types of businesses. His programs would mean higher taxes on the top earners. He opposes racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia.
Hillary is business as usual. She is a creature of the corporate and banking world, and will not put any real effort into curbing the excesses of that world. She has made nods towards higher minimum wages, and would support an expansion of ACA (Obamacare) but does not seem to support true universal health care. She is not in favor of Bernie’s college tuition proposals, and in foreign policy seems to be a hawk. Hillary opposes sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and the more overt forms of racism. It is possible through public pressure to move Hillary more toward progressive positions, but she is essentially a centrist.
Trump is a problem. He spouts racism, sexism, and xenophobia. He incites his followers to attack those who oppose him, and excuses or condones their actions when they do. The absolute best one could hope for with Trump is that he does not mean what he says. He seems to bring forth the worst in his supporters. Now admittedly, he is not business as usual, but that isn’t necessarily in a good way. Given his wealth and his ties to corporate America, he is unlikely to make more than token efforts to curb their excesses. He flatly opposes an increase to the minimum wage. He has said he favors punishment for women who get abortions, even though abortion has been legal in this country since Roe vs Wade. He has a problem with the truth. Non-partisan fact checkers have said that a majority of his statements are mostly false, false, or ‘pants-on-fire’ false. Trump flatly scares me. We are supposed to live in a society that respects all people yet he demonizes immigrants and Muslims. He casually throws out slurs against women and blacks.
As I said, my preference is for Bernie, but if Bernie does not get the Democratic nomination, I will support Hillary. While I don’t think Hillary will take the country forward, I am sure Trump will take the country sharply backward.
