I have been a Bernie Sanders supporter since April, 2015, when he first announced that he would seek the Presidency. I’d like to explain why.

Even though the stock market has hit new highs and the unemployment rate new lows, there are fundamental problems facing the country that only a major transformation in existing public programs will address.  Climate change, a health care crisis, income inequality, expensive higher education, corporate influence in politics, and watered-down bank regulation are some of the problems we face.  The Bernie Sanders movement is, as one commentator called it, “transformative” and it truly is a “movement” in that it advances a whole range of policy proposals that will attack these problems by fundamentally changing the way the country has been operating for decades.

 Not since FDR’s very transformative New Deal program in the 1930’s has there been a candidate with such a wide range of policy proposals as those forming the Sanders platform.  A partial list of these proposals includes:

•  An increase in the Federal minimum wage that has been $7.25 an hour since 2009;

• A Medicare for All program to improve the nation’s health and establish health care as a basic human right;

• Revocation of Citizens United to limit corporate influence in our politics;

  Reinstallation of the Glass-Steagall Act to restrict risky investments of commercial banks that reduces the risk of another 2008 financial crisis;

• Reduction of student loan obligations;

• Strategies for making post-secondary  education more affordable;

• Legalization of marijuana; and, most important of all,

• A detailed program to attack the causes of climate change by reducing fossil fuel use.  And no more pipelines!

Finally, I’m a long-time Bernie supporter because of his moral stand opposing the war in Vietnam, voting against the invasion of Iraq (a war which got us into the mess we’re now in) and openly speaking out against Trump’s current war-to-be in Iran.   

Keith Dix

Nellysford, VA

 For more information about Bernie Sander click here