op-ed.

BERNIE

op-ed.

andrew gechter
gage skidmore photo

Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont, is easily one of the most liberal
presidential candidates the Democratic
party has put forth in a long time. As a
result, the enigmatic and energetic candidate has taken hold of the largely liberally minded population of high school
and college students in Ann Arbor. He
is not liberal in the sense that he blends
in with most other stereotypical Democratic presidential candidates and sides
with them on all of the things that they
generally believe in. Rather, hes liberal
in that we have never truly seen a candidate like Sanders before.
If he were to win the election, his
policy would demand what Snaders calls
a political revolution. Areas in which
he demands reform are so drastically different than our current American
standards that many citizens are put off
by him. Many have accused him of being a socialist for his tax plan and its implications, but a large number of people
like what he says about the U.S.s class
divide and believe that he would help
reel in a lot of the governments lost
money over the years. Just recently, he
managed to pull an unexpected victory in the state of Michigan over Hillary
Clinton by 1.5% (49.8% to 48.3%).
So, what does his policy consist of ?
Sanders plans to rake in several trillion
dollars during his presidency by steadily
raising taxes, primarily on the exceedingly wealthy. He plans to take this a
step further through a redistribution
of wealth. He firmly believes this is the
best way to even out the class divide

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which has plagued America for as long

as we can remember. This could be an
idealistically good idea for the economy; it would raise about $15 trillion in
the time hed be in office, which is more
money than any other government-enforced policy would be able to raise.
Another appealing feature of his policy is how much he sympathizes with
many high schoolers who will likely,
one day, be ludicrously in debt because
of college. In other words, under Bernies watch, college will be free. How?
Through a tax on the Wall Street speculators that would amount to around
$300 billion. No one should have to
be as in debt as many college students
currently are and have been for a long
time because of something like getting
a good education. Sanders plan could
lead to even greater benefits than originally anticipated.
Perhaps the best thing about Sanders is that, out of the three candidates
widely recognized as have the best odds
to win (the other two being Donald
Trump and Hillary Clinton), he is undoubtedly the most sincere and honest
candidate. Clinton has been caught lying
and changing her stance on certain issues on several occasions; about seven
years ago, Clinton was an opponent of
same-sex marriage, but starting this decade, she suddenly changed her stance
and became a supporter of it. There is
also a situation involving leaked emails
she containing classified information
that has been taking the spotlight on the
news. Is she really someone whos wor-

thy of trust, and especially enough so to

be in office?
Trump is even worse, for reasons that
are obvious at this point. He continues to go back and revise statements
he has made on live television, and to
say the least, his business practices are
heavily frowned upon. He comes from
an inherently rich family background,
and tends to retreat to that family background when facing heavy questioning
at the podium. He recently cited his late
uncle, a former top professor at MIT, as
evidence of his excellent genes and outstanding genius.
Sanders has run the only truly honest, sensible campaign. He sympathizes and fights for the average American
and their rights with all the right intentions. Even those who do not necessarily agree with what his policy entails
cannot deny that. Hes the only current
candidate who has a history of sticking to his guns. This is evident in video footage from 1995 in which he tears
apart a conservative man in court who
used an offensive, homophobic slur. If
he felt confident enough to say something like that over 20 years ago, then
how long had he held his stance on gay
marriage? He really is for the people,
and while some critics may be against
him for wanting to raise taxes, people
should know that he is doing so for a
good cause. We should be glad that he
won the Michigan primary and hope
he only continues to do well from this
point on.

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