I’m not a political person, I swear. If you’ve read my blog, I typically write about parenting and travel. I’m not a Republican nor am I a Democrat. I don’t like that I can’t vote in the primaries unless I choose a side because I don’t consider myself one or the other. I don’t understand the difference between superdelegates and amazeballdelegates. And don’t normal delegates feel bad that they’re not super? I thought pundits were a square used by biologists to determine the probability of an offspring’s genotype. The word filibusters meant nothing to me but sounded like something that might be Blockbuster’s sister company. And I only know the difference between left wing and right wing depending on which of my friends is talking; it’s a mental block.
But here’s what I know right now, at this moment. I can’t turn around these days without feeling totally f*cked. Baby powder and baby shampoo cause cancer. Popular brands of dog food kills dogs. Politicians knowingly let us drink poisonous water and laugh about it through emails. The mighties-that-be make us feel angry about welfare citizens stealing our tax dollars, then fly off on private jets paid for by our bail out tax money. Media (maybe not all, but most) cannot be trusted as a trustworthy source to get news because they almost always have a bias. In short, thinking about the state of affairs in the United States of America is a mental marathon. Exhausting and and a bad idea in this climate.
And then there was Bernie…
Some of you say voting for Bernie Sanders is a vote for communism (which it’s not) but many of you are the same people who are supporting a fascist. Sanders has defined himself a democratic socialist and since I looked it up I’ll tell that you that that means he believes in social equality through a ballot, through voting. In other words, we all have a say in our justice. Yet still many others gloss over him at the mention of (democratic) socialist as if democratic socialism hasn’t worked in places like Finland (best education system in the world), Denmark (the happiest people in the world), and Norway (still voted the best country in the world to live). I guess it’s silly to be among the world’s most educated, happiest, and freaking awesome.
But all that aside, voting for Bernie Sanders is simple: he is the kind of person we need. He hasn’t slung schoolyard crap at anyone. He refuses to get hogtied in dirty politics that has nothing to do with the problems at the table. Come after him with gossip and shit slinging and he’ll ask about policies without blinking an eye. He knows that America doesn’t have time for reality show antics. Ultimately, and maybe the most important fact to consider in the low blow slinging of presidential schoolyard candidates, is that no one has come after him with reality show drama and middle school rumors. Why? Perhaps because they’ve got nothing.
Voting for Bernie Sanders is easy because he has stirred up thousands in rallies and marches without reality show tactics. The most radical supporter I’ve seen was a breastfeeding mom from Ohio. Bernie is a leader by example, directly and without confusion disavowing people who use his name to humiliate or attack others while other candidates blame hearing equipment and take votes where they can get them, no matter how dirty or bloody those votes are.
But mostly, we should all be talking about voting for Bernie Sanders because Bernie makes me hopeful that America isn’t totally lost. He is as unwavering a leader as is America. Bernie has stood for the same values for decades. He doesn’t vote what is popular for the few bog boys but rather what is best for most. He hasn’t flip flopped on his morals. He hasn’t sat on the fence waiting to see what side is going to win. His values are uncompromising and despite big money’s influence, Bernie Sander has risen, grown, and multiplied. There is a reason his candidacy has been called a movement and not a campaign. A campaign is scripted. A movement is visceral. A campaign can’t force change. A movement requires it.
Perhaps Robert Reich, a man who worked for the Clinton Administration said it best when he said, “Hillary Clinton is best to head the system we now have, and Bernie Sanders is best to get the system we need.” In a different time, voting for Hillary would have been fine, a woman in the White House might be a good change up to the usual Good Ol’ Boys Club but this isn’t that time. This isn’t her time. She is same old politics and the tides have to turn. “Despite the Democratic National Committee,” Reich writes, “the big Democratic funders, the New York Times and Washington Post [both of which had to publish Bernie’s Michigan win today, one of which tried to put a BS spin on its obvious prejudice]; despite the pollsters and pundits and the Washington insiders and political operatives — despite an establishment that doesn’t want to recognize what has happened to America and why this movement is essential to reclaiming our democracy and economy — Bernie will prevail and the political revolution will grow. Americans are joining up and joining together.”
Bernie Sanders is a movement, a movement the media would have you believe can’t win but that is the same media overrun by the same people who poison our water.
Don’t drink the water. Instead, fuel the movement. #feelthebern
I’m Jennifer Legra and I approve this message.
P.S. The times we should resist.
Photos by Gage Skidmore
