The Most Important Argument for Bernie Sanders Spandrel Follow Mar 12 · 3 min read

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As many political observers have noted, the 2020 election is not just another election. On the Republican side, you’ve got Donald Trump — need I say more? On the Democratic side, you’ve got an avowed socialist.

On top of that, we seem to be reaching a boiling point on so many issues in this country: healthcare, gun control, climate change and abortions. But no matter your views, or the issues you care about, there is one issue that you should prioritize above all others: the amount of say you have in what your government does, whether that be local, state or federal.

Although we’ve never claimed to have had a true democracy in the United States, we’ve at least tried to espouse the ideals of democracy through our representative government. Our founders took great care to ensure that our government would be for the people, and by the people. It is clear that is no longer the case. In the 2020 election cycle it is predicted that campaign spending will reach 6.9 billion dollars. This, and I can not stress this point enough, is not normal. Other countries don’t do this, and for good reason.

I think the best argument I can use to make my point is through one simple fact: these wealthy people and corporations would not be spending this insane amount of money on elections if they weren’t seeing returns on that “investment.”

Their undue amount of influence allows them to bend our government to their will, and this often leads to detrimental results for the rest of us. Whether that’s the opioid crisis that was largely caused by the pharmaceutical industry colluding with the government to allow their addictive and harmful drugs into our health system. Or the tobacco industry that for years fought any labeling of lung cancer risks associated with their products. Or chemical corporations such as DuPont that fought regulation in order to continue poisoning our water supplies and communities.

Obviously, the cases I mentioned are some of the more egregious examples in recent history and most often corporate influence will not lead to as much damage, but, it’s sort of irrelevant to the point I’m trying to make. Which is, the less say people have over their economic and political lives, the less that they will be able to get done to improve their economic and political lives. It’s really as simple as that.

So, while it may seem like a bit of a paradox, if you really care about getting things done on climate change, you can’t necessarily prioritize climate change candidates anymore, you need to prioritize democracy that will allow your climate objectives to be attained. By the same token, if you really care about reducing your income taxes, you may have to forgo voting for those immediate changes and prioritize democracy instead.

You might be thinking, well, I don’t know if I want this kind of change because right now the system is benefitting me just fine. To that, I would say, how do you know that will always be the case?

For decades white Americans have benefited immensely from a political system that was designed to be in their favor. Recently, though, poorer and middle class white Americans’ interests have, for whatever reason, fallen out of line with the political ruling class. This is no better represented than by the opioid crisis that has struck Middle America.

I know this sounds incredibly difficult, but sometimes we really do need to take a step back in order to take two steps forward. Now is that time. So while it may be the case that Bernie is diametrically opposed to you on almost every issue, it should matter that for the entirety of his political career he has fought for the right of voters, no matter their political tendencies, to have more say over their lives. And it is this democratic maxim that he can unite the country under in 2020.