#1 — Bernie is a Fundraising Monster

Bernie has raised more money than all other Democratic candidates. In Q4 of 2019, Sanders raised a whopping $35.4 million from over 1.8 million small-dollar donations, putting his total fundraising for 2019 at $96 million. By comparison, the Trump campaign raised $46 million Q4 of 2019 and has $102 million total cash on hand. No other Democratic candidate, not even the ones who have billionaire and corporate funding, has raised as much as Bernie to compete with Trump. The same was also true in Q3 of 2019, in which Sanders raised $25.3 million.

Don’t forget, either, the incredible map in a New York Times article from August 2019 showing Bernie crushing the rest of the Democratic field as the candidate with the most individual donors. Sanders’ presence was so dominant that the New York Times had to create a separate map excluding him in order to see donors for the other candidates.

Source: New York Times

Further, Bernie Sanders is the only candidate in the entire history of the United States to hit 5 million donations this early in a presidential election. In an email to supporters celebrating the milestone on January 1, 2020, Sanders wrote, “Against Trump, I believe we will have 50 million individual contributions, at least. And at $27 a piece, that would be more than $1 billion.”

The Bernie 2020 fundraising machine is unstoppable. If any other Democratic candidate had these fundraising metrics, you would hear endless praise from the mainstream media.

Source: Bernie 2020

#2 — Trump is Afraid of Bernie

In September 2019, the Daily Beast reported that “Trump has repeatedly told friends and donors that running against ‘socialism’ in a general election may not be ‘so easy’ because of its populist draw, according to four Republicans and sources close to Trump who’ve heard him say this over the past several months.” Having run a (fake) populist campaign in 2016, Trump knows the appeal of populism, and the one true populist on the left is, and always has been, Bernie Sanders.

As an aside, Trump’s private remarks could also be telling of an acknowledgement that the “socialism is bad” boogeyman that has been manufactured by corporate and elite interests in the U.S. ever since the initial unraveling of the New Deal Coalition is no longer holding as much weight. A Gallup survey in May 2019 found that while just 25% of Americans in 1942 viewed socialism favorably, that number increased to 43% in 2019. Further, between 1942 and 2019, the change in Americans viewing socialism favorably was greater than the change in Americans viewing socialism negatively. Another Gallup survey found that “Democrats have a more positive view of socialism than they do of capitalism.” Sanders himself is consistently viewed as the most popular politician and senator in the country.

The Daily Beast article also states that Trump “added that if candidates tell Americans, especially young voters — that they’re going to cancel their debt, ‘that’s a tough one’ to run against.”

I agree. Let’s talk about debt.

#3 — Bernie is the Only Candidate Proposing to Cancel All Medical and Student Debt

One in six Americans have past-due medical debt totaling $81 billion, and 79 million Americans struggle to pay their medical bills and debt. It is not moral to force people into debt because they have an illness. It is not moral that over 66% of bankruptcies are related to medical expenses. Bernie is the only candidate to propose eliminating all medical debt and implementing a single-payer, Medicare for All health care system.

I, and many of my friends, have student debt. The United States is the only country in the world in which 45 million people hold over $1.6 trillion in student debt. It is not moral to punish students for the “crime” of getting an education. Bernie is the only candidate to propose cancelling all student debt and making public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition free.

The time is long overdue to alleviate the pain of millions of Americans drowning in immoral and rapacious debt. Trump’s right: cancelling debt is a tough one to run against, and only the populist left represented in the Sanders campaign is proposing these necessary social democratic policies that would be considered moderate in the rest of the modern world. In addition to medical and student debt cancellation, Bernie has arguably the most progressive agenda that this country has seen since FDR. No wonder the Sanders agenda has massive popularity in the United States and, again, Sanders is consistently viewed as the most popular politician in the country.

#4 — Bernie, and I Can’t Stress This Enough, is the Only One with a Mass Movement

This is crucial. You are not going to generate the kind of excitement, energy, and enthusiasm necessary to increase voter turnout and beat Trump in 2020 if you don’t give people a bold, inspiring, and beautiful vision of their lives and country to fight for.

Democrats risk losing 2020 if all they are is anti-Trump. It is not good enough to be anti-Trump. You have to unequivocally, firmly, and passionately tell people what you are for, and perhaps no other Democratic candidate has ingrained his or her message into the political psyche of the American people as much as Bernie Sanders. His relentlessly disciplined and fierce messaging of economic, social, racial, and environmental justice, and the rigging of the economy in favor of the top 1% and corporate interests, has fundamentally shifted the Overton window of the mainstream Democratic Party agenda. What was once considered radical before 2016 no longer is, and even the establishment, status quo Democrats running for president often attempt — and fail — to be Sanders, and it’s obvious. Take the following exchange between NPR’s Rachel Martin and Sanders in March 2019, in which Sanders has the correct witty response.

Source: NPR

Bernie has undoubtedly changed the game, and he’s the leader of the mass social movement he’s created. Sanders himself views his campaign not as the end goal, but as a necessary step in creating a mass movement to achieve economic, social, racial, and environmental justice.

Whereas most politicians look to just win the next election, Bernie Sanders is a leader who genuinely cares about current and future generations and has a record to prove it. As opposed to Obama — who’s claims of hope and change ultimately lead to disillusionment and disappointment among progressives— “what’s unique [about Bernie Sanders] is the popular idea that ordinary people are themselves the source of hope and agent of change,” says Jacobin writer Meagan Day rather eloquently. One of the many gifts Bernie has given America is the realization that ordinary people, together in solidarity, can achieve extraordinary progress, and that we are the power and change we seek.

On October 19, 2019, an estimated 26,000 people attended Bernie’s rally in Queens, New York, making it the largest rally of any of the Democratic candidates in 2020 and a testament to the size and enthusiasm of the movement.

Bernie Sanders rally in Queens, NY. October 19, 2019. Source: Bernie 2020

One of the best things about this movement is that it is the multi-racial, multi-cultural working class movement the left has dreamed of for decades. No other Democratic candidate has this committed, loyal, energized, and mobilized mass movement.

Source: Bernie 2020

Movements have inertia, and this mass movement that Bernie has inspired will not disappear. It’s here, and it’s here to stay.

#5 — Decades of Authenticity and Consistency

Admirably, Bernie Sanders has been fighting for regular people for over 40 years and has never quit. He is one of the few people who has never lost sight of his principles, his convictions, and his honesty, especially when his beliefs were unpopular. Or, as renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky put it:

“Well, Bernie Sanders is an extremely interesting phenomenon. He’s a decent, honest person. That’s pretty unusual in the political system. Maybe there are two of them in the world, you know. But he’s considered radical and extremist, which is a pretty interesting characterization, because he’s basically a mainstream New Deal Democrat. His positions would not have surprised President Eisenhower, who said, in fact, that anyone who does not accept New Deal programs doesn’t belong in the American political system. That’s now considered very radical.”

Sanders has always believed that we need a mass movement of ordinary people to bring about the political revolution of empowering the working and middle classes. His remarkably disciplined authenticity, consistency, solidarity, and messaging over the past 40+ years is fantastically refreshing in a country of flip-flopping politicians. When the establishment conjures false narratives of Bernie not being “electable,” what they really mean is that he can’t be bought, that he won’t play ball, that he won’t serve the elite interests. With Bernie, you know exactly what you’re getting, and you know who’s side he’s on: yours.

Source: Bernie 2020

#6 — Solidarity

During the Queens rally, Sanders roared a profound statement of Solidarity which has now become a rallying-cry of the mass movement:

“Are you willing to fight for someone you don’t know as much as you’re willing to fight for yourself?”

I am. I am willing to fight for someone I don’t know, because Solidarity includes an understanding that issues that affect others affect you, as well, and issues that affect you likewise affect others, too. I believe in Solidarity with those drowning in medical debt, as that could just as easily be me. I believe in Solidarity with those drowning in student debt, as I am one of them. I believe in Solidarity with the innocent women, men, and children who have lost their loved ones in war, as my family in Iran is at increased risk given the recent growing tensions with the United States.

In Sanders’ words:

“If your kids are hurting, my kids are hurting. If you can’t afford to see a doctor, that affects me as well. We must remember we are all connected and fight for a nation and a government that is based on human solidarity.”

In 2016, Trump said, “I alone can fix it.” This is the opposite of Bernie’s unifying message of “Not me. Us.” Bernie knows the only way we will defeat Trump and get real change is if a mass movement of people demand it and participate. It is not about one person; it is not about one president. It is about all of us together in a powerful movement of Solidarity. Nominate any of the other Democratic candidates without this message, and you’ll make a second Trump term more likely.