Bernie Sanders makes a serious case for presidential run in 2016

Bernie Sanders is on the campaign trail and he wants your vote…he just doesn’t have any guileful plans of trying to buy it with money or promises he can’t hope to fulfill.

Unlike the other presidential candidates, who’re already beginning to fervently campaign as if it were October 2016, Bernie Sanders is the one guy who likely has an opportunity to have a massive impact on this country and that you’re least likely to have heard of up until this point.

Having made his entrance into politics in the early 1970’s it could be assumed that Sanders is part of the “good ol’ boy system” that seemingly has a stranglehold on our Congress, but that belief couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sanders was one of the first independents elected in decades when he took a seat as a representative in Vermont’s “At Large” district, and he quickly became known for his criticism of politicians on both sides of the aisle as being “tools of the wealthy”.

As indicated by About.com-Politics, the three main issues in the upcoming election are the recovery of the economy after the most recent recession, construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and everything and anything having to do with the Affordable Care Act. So where does Sanders stand on these topics?

In Mark Leibovich’s article “The Socialist Senator,” he makes Sanders’ position crystal clear; as a socialist, Sanders will come right out and tell you that he has serious misgivings about the current state of the economy, where the six largest financial institutions hold about 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. For those of you who don’t know, Investopedia.com defines Gross Domestic Product as “one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country’s economy. It represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period – you can think of it as the size of the economy.”

According to his website, Sanders openly opposes such institutions and has introduced legislation such as the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big To Exist Act” which would do away with said super-banks and prevent them from using our countries Reserve as a fallback for when they fail to act properly.
The Keystone XL Pipeline is also another red button topic in the upcoming election. If passed, the bill would allow two pipelines, built in subsequent phases to be built from the Keystone Hardisty Oil Terminal in Alberta, Canada. The first would extend into Illinois and the second would extend all the way down into Texas and the Gulf Coast Region of America.

While this avenue of approach would alleviate immediate pressure on the country and the economy, Sanders has openly said that this would not solve the fact that the country is consuming more natural resources than we can replace and that the only realistic option for the future is to pursue renewable energy. Sanders has not only led the opposition against the pipeline but was also a key figure in effectively defeating the bill in the Senate. It’s worth noting that Sanders is a sitting member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Universal healthcare is an issue that, by now, we’d all hoped would have been taken care of. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd, 2010, was supposed to have taken care of that issue, but the system has been riddled with glitches and faults as well as met with derision from both sides of the congressional aisle.

Sanders’s view on healthcare is in line with other democratic countries in that it follows what is commonly referred to single-payer health care” in which the Government as opposed to private insurers pay for health care costs.

Mud slinging has become the status quo in modern politics. Propaganda and rhetoric will be totally unavoidable, so it is up to you to do everything you can to learn about the candidates who’d like to get into our public offices. Bernie Sanders, while not the most recognizable candidate, seemingly has more to offer than those who’re hogging the public spotlight. I’d suggest spending some time getting to know him.

Ryan J. Wasser is a fourth-year student majoring in political science. He can be reached at RJWasserofficial@gmail.com.