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On 25 February, Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders held a a forum in Flint, Michigan in order for residents to voice concerns over the large scale contamination of their water supply thanks to the negligence and short-sightedness of emergency manager Darnell Earley and Governor Rick Snyder.

Sanders explained that while the crisis is a result of a major lapse in leadership, it also points to the country’s crumbling infrastructure and underscores the need for investment.

“If there is any silver lining out of this tragedy, it is my hope that the American people will look at Flint and say, ‘never again,'” Sanders said on his first campaign visit to the troubled city.

“We are looking at children being poisoned – if that is not an emergency, I just don’t know what an emergency is,” added Sanders, in the packed Flint church.

“While Flint may be the canary in the coal mine, there are a lot of other canaries all around the country. The truth is our infrastructure is collapsing,” Sanders said. “I hope that out of the tragedy will come fundamental changes.”

Sanders has called for the resignation of Governor Rick Snyder, a call that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton did not make in her visit to the city a few weeks previous.

The GOP candidates meanwhile, have served as apologists for Snyder.

During the GOP debate in Detroit, Michigan, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio responded to a question about Flint saying, "all of us are outraged by what happened" but added that Snyder "took responsibility."

"This should not be a partisan issue. The way the Democrats have tried to turn this into a partisan issue, that somehow Republicans woke up in the morning and decided, 'Oh, it's a good idea to poison some kids with lead,' it's absurd. It's outrageous. It isn't true," Rubio said, putting the onus of this major tragedy on the Democrats, somehow. Snyder is a Republican.

At Sanders’ forum, he succinctly noted that the predominately African-American city of Flint makes the water crisis a race issue.

“Clearly this is part of a long-term trend of starving communities of color,” he said.

Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has saved face on this issue by dispatching aides to the city in January, raising the issue in a debate and touting the Flint mayor’s endorsement. During a 7 February visit to an African-American church in Flint, Clinton pointed out that the water crisis and subsequent poisoning of the city would never happen in a wealthy, predominately white city.

And she is right. But Sanders has made this case too. The difference is Clinton is relying on rhetoric like “fight for Flint no matter how long it takes,” and Sanders has proposed policy fixes like a $1 trillion infrastructure revitalization plan.

His plan includes raising taxes on high-income earners and expanding so-called gas taxes. The interim halfway as-needed fixes to the country’s infrastructure already cost about $200 billion per year, so a revitalization, while expensive is a good longterm investment. Not to mention it would “create and maintain 13 million good-paying jobs that our economy desperately needs,” as Sanders puts it in an oped with The Hill.

Regardless, the eventual nominee will need to fix Flint, Michigan, arrange repayment to the citizens who are getting sick and dying from the poisoned water and bring Snyder up on charges.

As reported by the Associated Press, a woman named Nakiya Wakes attended the Sanders forum and the Clinton visit before that.

She told Sanders that the city’s lead-tainted water is to the reason for her miscarriage and is causing her son’s repeated suspension from school.

But she rightly noted that Flint’s problem is not political. It needs fixing.

"It's really not political with me," Wakes told the AP after Sanders' forum. "When are you going to get something done for the families and these children?"