Who is Bernie Sanders? Bernie Sanders is an Independent running for President of the United States. Sanders is a Brooklyn, New York native and has held numerous prominent positions, such as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont (which happens to be Vermont’s largest city), in addition to being a United States Senator representing the state of Vermont, elected since 2007 and still serving. Bernie Sanders has been a lifelong fighter for civil rights. Most notable for his participation and attendance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech”, in addition to being a strong civil rights activist at the college he used to attend (University of Chicago), where he protested the segregation of black students.
Unlike Sanders’ opponents (i.e. Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley), Sanders is much more liberal than the two of them, however a bit more centrist in some regards. Bernie Sanders is pro-choice, pro-LGBT, for free college (not just community college), pro-gun-ownership (but with strict mental health background checks), against sending ground troops to foreign nations such as Syria, for decriminalizing marijuana (and potentially other drugs), in addition to rehabilitating those who are drug addicts, rather than jailing them. Bernie Sanders is also pro-Israel, however nowhere near pro-Israel as some of his Republican rivals. As a Jew, he favors neither the Israeli or Palestinian side, and instead favors a two-state solution (source:
http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-israel-and-the-palestinians). Bernie Sanders is also in favor of allowing Syrian refugees to come to America.
Many consider Sanders to be a socialist, however the definition of socialism is actually: “a system of society or group living in which there is no private property or a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state”, citied from Merriam Webster. Bernie Sanders does not believe in the de-privatization of virtually anything, nor does he believe that every single person should be making the “same” income. He just believes in underprivileged/impoverished Americans (especially minorities) being provided with more resources/opportunities (such as free education and free healthcare and ending police profiling). Bare in mind that most European nations have systems like this already implemented, and that America is one of the few developed nations in the world which does not provide free healthcare (or subsidized healthcare, rather) or even free college.
NOTE: I made this topic mostly because I noticed that this forum has a rather large amount of Sanders supporters. DISCLAIMER: By no means is this topic directly endorsing the candidate, neither does the creator of this topic support Sanders, however he does not hold unfavorable views toward the candidate.
MORE TO COME SOON. IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. ALSO,
#FEELTHEBERN
Do you support Bernie Sanders? Do you know many who do? Do you have any opinions on the candidate?