Bernie may have just dropped out of the 2020 election, but his campaign-closing message is more true than ever. More Americans need to believe we can actually make this country a better place to live for it to ever possibly happen. Because with the apathy of our current average American, no matter how wealthy or advanced our country gets, our countries continued economic power will forever be disconnected from advancing healthcare, education and wages for our citizens. As he says in the announcement he just made an hour ago: "If we don't believe that we are entitled to healthcare as a human right, we will never achieve universal healthcare. If we don't believe that we are entitled to decent wages and working conditions, millions will continue to live in poverty..." Truer words have never been spoken at a moment where millions are likely to be in healthcare limbo right as the nation is dealing with a pandemic. Truer words have never been spoken when many public-facing workers are held hostage to continue going into work for wages conservatives would usually argue are meant for teenagers, but suddenly they are deemed "essential". We won't achieve these goals if you never set them in your sites. Every other first world country has universal healthcare and pays less per capita for it. That may be a quick sentence you've heard many times before but please think about what is packed into that statement. Universal Healthcare eliminates medical bankruptcies. Universal Healthcare keeps people from denying an ambulance when they need one. Universal Healthcare allows growing small businesses to compete for and retain talent. Universal Healthcare eliminates people on their death-bed from having their final thoughts being about "how are we going to pay for this?". Universal Healthcare eliminates middle-men and paperwork and the profit motive from being the heart of our current healthcare industry. We like to think of ourselves as the wealthiest country in the world, but our compassion and understanding of the human spirit does not match. We have been an economy for a century that adds great wealth to our country year after year, but we have not seen shared equity of that wealth beyond the richest of the rich since the 1980s. This is fixable but we have to believe it as people, for it to happen. We are our only advocates! Businesses pay billions to lobby for their business. Special Interests spend billions to lobby for their interests. There is no billion dollar advocacy group on behalf of all of us people. That's what we are supposed to be doing for ourselves by voting for people who fight for ALL Americans and our shared interests. We are supposed to be voting for people like Bernie Sanders. But too many people don't believe. And we need you to believe! WE NEED YOU TO BELIEVE we don't have to watch our parents lose their retirement because one of them got cancer. WE NEED YOU TO BELIEVE we don't have to saddle children with tens of thousands of dollars of debt just to pursue an education. WE NEED YOU TO BELIEVE that not all politicians are the same. Because that's what they want you to believe so you continue to not care, continue to be apathetic, continue to just shrug. Because it is that void you leave behind that special interests are happy to fill. They fill that void with their money and lobbying and decades of understanding the game as we have allowed it to be played. Thank you Bernie. You have lit more flames in your direction than I'm sure you could have hoped for only 5 years ago. “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.” - FDR |
The Author
is a thirty-something guy who hasn't been able to look away from politics since 2010. Around the time he got tired of staring at religion. Archives
June 2020
Categories
|