Liberals should vote Sanders

Frank Mello-Morales, Contributing writer

Despite not identifying as a liberal, I support and intend to vote for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries. My support has less to do with Sanders himself and more to do with the fact that Hillary Clinton has an opponent. The former First Lady, senator and Secretary of State remains the frontrunner of the Democratic primary despite ever-tightening poll numbers. Contemporary liberals have little in common with Hillary Clinton, however, and would be wise to support Senator Sanders. Issues concerning conflicts of interest, establishment ties and overall corruption should make liberals Not Ready For Hillary.

Bernie Sanders introduced legislation Thursday that would ban private prisons, saying, “We need to end, once and for all, the disgraceful practice of corporations profiting from the incarceration of Americans.” Hillary Clinton has yet to voice her support for a similar measure; perhaps because lobbyists working on behalf of private prisons, such as Corrections Corporation of America or The Geo Group, have been actively raising money on behalf of her campaign. A few months ago, The Nation Magazine, requested of each and every candidate to sign a pledge which stated, “In the name of protecting our country and the world from the growing dangers of climate change, I will neither solicit nor accept campaign contributions from any oil, gas or coal company.” Bernie Sanders was one of only three candidates to sign that pledge; Hillary Clinton joined the nearly twenty GOP candidates in refusing to do so. This is unsurprising — she would not want to turn away major donors such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and TransCanada to name but a few.

With regards to Wall Street, Senator Sanders previously opposed any and all bailouts of the financial industry while Clinton supported them in 2008. Recently, Sanders made explicit his intentions to break up the biggest banking institutions in the country. He also intends to restore Glass Steagall, a bill which separated commercial and investment banking repealed under Bill Clinton and introduce a financial transaction tax on Wall Street speculation. This would serve to regulate the industry while simultaneously bringing in revenues of up to $130 billion a year, money that would be spent making public colleges and universities tuition free.

Concerningly, the institutions which brought our economy to a standstill can all be found among Hillary Clinton’s top career contributors — Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Co and Morgan Stanley. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, has received around 80 percent of his campaign donations through small donations of $200 or less. As we saw in 2008, small donations indicate popular support. Liberals must make the right choice next spring, and make Bernie Sanders the Democratic nominee.

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Email Frank Mello-Morales at [email protected].