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| The middle class in America is suffering from extremism in politics. |
The Republican Party doesn't offer any good candidates who will help the middle class either. They have a few reformers who see the right path on helping illegal immigrants become productive members of society but the Republican Party opposes helpful policies that will rebuild the middle class economy.
For example, in 2012 Warren Buffett easily demonstrated how Republican tax cuts have only helped the super rich, a small group of wealthy Americans who, for the most part, share Buffett's view that they should pay more in taxes. If the wealthiest Americans want to pay more in taxes, why do Republicans constantly want to increase their tax breaks? Clearly there is no sensible leadership coming from the Republican Party on economic issues.
But though Obama's health care reforms have finally brought health insurance to millions of Americans who previously could not afford it, the law has overlooked millions of other Americans who lost their health insurance when their companies cut back on benefits or let them go. And there is no hope in sight for those families to recover that lost health coverage, much less the millions of remaining Americans who have been without health insurance for many years.
Although you might think the Democratic Party would put forth candidates who look like strong advocates for the middle class, so far only Hilary Clinton has stepped forward. All other leading Democrats have demurred running for President because "her time has come". And why is that? She and her husband have brought many scandals to American politics but she has not demonstrated much commitment to supporting the middle class.
President Bill Clinton proved to have a pretty good track record for reducing the Federal deficit and supporting policies that created jobs. But many of those jobs vanished with the great "dot-com meltdown" of 1999-2001. Our economy was in pretty bad shape when he left office and Mrs. Clinton has not offered a vision on how to restore the middle class. She doesn't even acknowledge the pain of the middle class. Whatever happened to "it's the economy, stupid"?
Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination for President. Sanders puts the middle class at the forefront of his policies. Although some people fear that he may be too dovish on fighting Al Qaeda and the Islamic State terrorist group, Sanders makes some good points on the foreign policy debate. He wants to see the countries standing directly in the line of fire take on more responsibility for fighting these world-wide threats. In fact, Sanders opposed our intervention in Iraq and, frankly, given the way things turned out there, we would have been better off to have stood with him.
You can certainly look over Sanders' positions on many issues and ask yourself if there is not a better candidate, but if you are not satisfied with President Obama's low-paying jobs and if you are not satisfied with the Republican Party's anti-American policies, who is left? We don't need another Obama-like Democrat who is looking to create a legacy for herself. Nor do we need a gung ho Republican nutcase who wants to put illegal immigrants on trains and run them out of the country so that poor Americans have more low-paying job opportunities.
It is time for us to elect a President who brings a different point of view to the discussion, someone who has worked in national government for many years, and someone who is a bit more realistic about the challenges we face on the international stage.
That is why I think Bernie Sanders would be the best candidate for President in 2016. I hope you will agree with me.
