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A Bold, Progressive Agenda for a Happier and Healthier New Year
Common Dreams
Published on
Tuesday, January 01, 2019
by Bernie Sanders
Dear friends,
Jane and I want to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very healthy and happy new year.
It goes without saying that 2019 will be a pivotal and momentous time for our country and the entire planet. As you know, there is a monumental clash now taking place between two very different political visions. Not to get you too nervous, but the future of our country and the world is dependent upon which side wins that struggle.
The bad news is that in the United States and other parts of the world, the foundations of democracy are under severe attack as demagogues, supported by billionaire oligarchs, work to establish authoritarian type regimes. That is true in Russia. That is true in Saudi Arabia. That is true in the United States. While the very rich get much richer these demagogues seek to move us toward tribalism and set one group against another, deflecting attention from the real crises we face.
"Our job... is not only to oppose Trump but to bring forth a progressive and popular agenda that speaks to the real needs of working people."
The good news is that, all across this country, people are getting politically involved and are fighting back. They are standing up for economic, political, social and racial justice.
In the last year we saw courageous teachers, in some of the most conservative states in the country, win strikes as they fought for adequate funding for education.
We saw low paid workers at Amazon, Disney and elsewhere undertake successful struggles to raise their wages to a living wage – at least $15 an hour.
We saw incredibly courageous young people, who experienced a mass shooting in their school, lead successful efforts for commonsense gun safety legislation.
We saw diverse communities stand together in the fight against mass incarceration and for real criminal justice reform.
We saw tens of thousands of Americans, from every walk of life, take to the streets and demand that politicians respond to the global crisis of climate change.
As we enter 2019, it seems to me that we must mount a two-pronged offensive. First, we must vigorously take on the lies, bigotry and kleptocratic behavior of the most irresponsible president in the modern history of our country. In every way possible, we must stand up to the racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and religious intolerance of the Trump administration.
But fighting Trump is not enough.
The truth is that despite relatively low unemployment, tens of millions of Americans struggle daily to keep their heads above water economically as the middle class continues to shrink.
While the rich get richer, 40 million live in poverty, millions of workers are forced to work two or three jobs to pay the bills, 30 million have no health insurance, one in five cannot afford their prescription drugs, almost half of older workers have nothing saved for retirement, young people cannot afford college or leave school deeply in debt, affordable housing is increasingly scarce, and many seniors cut back on basic needs as they live on inadequate Social Security checks.
"It is imperative that the American people stand up and demand real solutions to the major economic, social, racial and environmental crises that we face."
Our job, therefore, is not only to oppose Trump but to bring forth a progressive and popular agenda that speaks to the real needs of working people. We must tell Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the National Rifle Association and the other powerful special interests that we will not continue to allow their greed to destroy this country and our planet.
Politics in a democracy should not be complicated. Government must work for all of the people, not just the wealthy and the powerful. As a new House and Senate convene next week, it is imperative that the American people stand up and demand real solutions to the major economic, social, racial and environmental crises that we face. In the richest country in the history of the world, here are some (far from all) of the issues that I will be focusing on this year. What do you think? How can we best work together?
Protect American democracy: Repeal Citizens United, move to public funding of elections and end voter suppression and gerrymandering. Our goal must be to establish a political system that has the highest voter turnout in the world and is governed by the democratic principle of one person - one vote.
Take on the billionaire class: End oligarchy and the growth of massive income and wealth inequality by demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes. We must rescind Trump's tax breaks for billionaires and close corporate tax loopholes.
Increase Wages: Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, establish pay equity for women and revitalize the trade union movement. In the United States, if you work 40 hours a week, you should not live in poverty.
Make health care a right: Guarantee health care for everyone through a Medicare-for-all program. We cannot continue a dysfunctional healthcare system which costs us about twice as much per capita as any other major country and leaves 30 million uninsured.
Transform our energy system: Combat the global crisis of climate change which is already causing massive damage to our planet. In the process, we can create millions of good paying jobs as we transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
Rebuild America: Pass a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. In the United States we must not continue to have roads, bridges, water systems, rail transport, and airports in disrepair.
Jobs for All: There is an enormous amount of work to be done throughout our country – from building affordable housing and schools to caring for our children and the elderly. 75 years ago, FDR talked about the need to guarantee every able-bodied person in this country a good job as a fundamental right. That was true in 1944. It is true today.
Quality Education: Make public colleges and universities tuition free, lower student debt, adequately fund public education and move to universal childcare. Not so many years ago, the United States had the best education system in the world. We much regain that status again.
Retirement Security: Expand Social Security so that every American can retire with dignity and everyone with a disability can live with security. Too many of our elderly, disabled and veterans are living on inadequate incomes. We must do better for those who built this country.
Women's rights: It is a woman, not the government, who should control her own body. We must oppose all efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, protect Planned Parenthood and oppose restrictive state laws on abortion.
Justice for All: End mass incarceration and pass serious criminal justice reform. We must no longer spend $80 billion a year locking up more people than any other country. We must invest in education and jobs, not jails and incarceration.
Comprehensive immigration reform: It is absurd and inhumane that millions of hardworking people, many of whom have lived in this country for decades, are fearful of deportation. We must provide legal status to those who are in the DACA program, and a path to citizenship for the undocumented.
Social Justice: End discrimination based on race, gender, religion, place of birth or sexual orientation. Trump cannot be allowed to succeed by dividing us up. We must stand together as one people.
A new foreign policy: Let us create a foreign policy based on peace, democracy and human rights. At a time when we spend more on the military than the next ten countries combined, we need to take a serious look at reforming the bloated and wasteful $716 billion annual Pentagon budget.
In the New Year, let us resolve to fight like we have never fought before for a government, a society and an economy that works for all of us, not just those on top.
Wishing you a wonderful new year,
Bernie Sanders
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
There isn't enough free college and healthcare in the world for you Bernie shits to go away.
So exactly which parts of Bernie's platform do you not agree with?
I think Crazy Bernie has a Messiah complex. And think out about this....if everyone is employed the guys at the Unemployment Office will lose their jobs.
:wtf:Quote:
Originally Posted by private parts
Bernie and I hath many things in common. We are both Jews, both previously employed as carpenters, both lived in Israel for a short time, and his political leanings - much like My teachings - are labeled as "socialism" by many.Quote:
Originally Posted by private parts
But I can assure thee, that Bernie hath no inclinations to compete with My job as Messiah! :jesuslol:
Praise You!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesus Christ
The part where you bratty feel-oh-so-privileged disillusioned fucks refuse to face reality.Quote:
Originally Posted by FORD
Yeah, and that reality is that Jellyfish Pelosi, and every last traitorous fuck who voted to enable her anti-progressive agenda today is going to get their pathetic asses handed to them in the 2020 primaries, just like that miserable fuck Joe Crowley did last year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kristy
These goddamned corporatist tools refuse to learn the lesson. So they gotta go.
You must be able to find someone better than someone who lost to Hillary Clinton last time...
If you are going to cite the dodgy moves made by the party last time, have the rules changes since?
Also remember that Bernie got a lot of (unsolicited) help from Russian troll farms.
Same old rhetoric horseshit with you: "Someday, mannnnnnnnnnn. Someday!Quote:
Originally Posted by FORD
Pelousy is there because Wall Street wants her there. And if she fucks off early, her replacement is already in the works.
If Wall street wanted Bernie there Bernie would be there.
Get.A.Fucking.Clue.
Bernie's going nowhere with the sexual arrass'mat stuff....
It's literally "fake news". A bullshit story from a disgruntled former employee who is now shilling for the TURD WAY (DLC) campaigns of Borey Crooker, Mini me Gillibrand, and Amy "who the fuck is she anyway" Klobuchar. Leave it to Politic-Ho to run with the propaganda and not bother to check the facts first....Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickdfresh
Howie does his homework. I'm definitely trusting him far more than Politico, a beltway corporatist tabloid that didn't even exist when the USA was still a Democracy (pre 12/12/2000 days)Quote:
Howie Klein
@downwithtyranny
Dec 31
Politico ran a story about a manufactured #MeTo attack on Bernie. It took 2 hours to get to the bottom of which fired employee is working w/ Gillibrand, Klobuchar, & Booker staffers + Biden's office to orchestrate this. Easy. Why didn't Alex Thompson do some actual reporting?
Wall $treet doesn't want Bernie. Bernie doesn't want Wall $treet. Wall $treet can fuck off. https://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/boese/g015.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by Kristy
BTW, if I were Borey Crooker, I would watch my back around Mini-Me. She already fucked Al Franken with a bullshit fake scandal, and now she's trying to do the same thing to Bernie. Who do you think her next target's gonna be, Borey?
Not that I'd feel an ounce of sympathy for him, but you know the old saying.... "lie down with Phillip Morris funded, Clinton worshiping dogs... wake up with fleas (and possibly STDs)"
Yap Yap Yap
Do you hear that? Sounds like a progressive poodle barking.
Progressives aren't poodles. We're pit bulls. It's the TURD way DINOs who are the corporatist poodles.
There were as many bots funded by Brock's "Corrupt the Record" shilling for Hillary as there were alleged Russian bots. And Hillary knew about them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seshmeister
As far as candidates go, there are literally no candidates better than Bernie. Elizabeth Warren probably comes the closest. I trust her on domestic policy completely, on foreign policy not so much. She's been a verbal supporter of the AIPAC talking points (which basically comes down to taking NuttyYahoo's word as gospel) and I'm concerned that her foreign policy advisors might be the same PNAC-lite types that worked for Obama, and that were advising Hillary in 2016.
I'd obviously vote for her over a bankster shill like Scamala Harris, or Borey Crooker. Or a backstabbing Hillary MiniMe like Gillibrand. But I'd rather not have to settle for a continuing PNAC foreign policy, even if the domestic policy is good. I'd really like to see Warren distance herself from that crowd.
Actually, you're annoying children who need to grow up and face reality.Quote:
Originally Posted by FORD
I honestly think that you could literally just pick any American off the street at this point and at least the first 5000 would be a better choice than Orange 45, but it still seems odd to me though to put up a 70 year old.Quote:
Originally Posted by FORD
Any other big job and you would be looking for someone 15-20 years younger. It's weird.
Better than Cheeto is a low hurdle.
People thought "Better than Reagan & Poppy" was all that was required in 1992, and we got the guy who gave us NAFTA, Faux News, Comcast, Clear Channel, Sinclair Broadcasting, and repealed the Glass Steagal act, which allowed the sort of Wall $treet casino gambling which has led to all kinds of financial disasters in the years since then.
We all wanted somebody better than Chimpy in 2008. The guy who was campaigning as a Democrat sounded pretty good. Turns out most of what he said was bullshit, and while he was arguably better than Chimpy, he damn sure wasn't the guy he claimed to be in his campaign speeches. But the bar was set so low that few people noticed... until the wars didn't end, and the insurance industry was preserved, rather than (at the very least) challenged with a public alternative (which is what Obama campaigned on)
So while even the worst of the fake Democrats wouldn't be as completely repulsive as the Orange Imbecile, how many of them would undo the damage done to this country, not just by Drumpf, but pretty much everything since 1981. I know Bernie would do his damnedest to at least try, and I'm reasonably certain that Elizabeth Warren also would, at least on the domestic side. The rest of the candidates currently getting media attention would probably just be like Bill & Barry..... kinder gentler Republicans, whose damage to the country isn't so easy to notice right away.
As far as younger goes, I'd vote for AOC in a heartbeat, if the Constitution allowed her to run for President at 29. Clinton & Obama were among the youngest Presidents elected at the time, but that didn't seem to make much difference in terms of their policies. JFK was technically very young when he was elected, but given his numerous health problems he might not have survived an 8 year term even without the CIA's "help".