Matthew Akins
The United States stands at the edge of a precipice. We can continue with a president who will see us leap over that cliff headfirst. We could choose a centrist or a technocrat from the Democratic Party who will have this country walk off the cliff; a slower but perhaps more tasteful end. However, there is an option that affords us the ability to walk away from that cliff entirely. Tolerating business as usual has led us to the moment we live in now. Bernie Sanders is our best choice. He is our only choice.
A few short weeks ago, this campus held a climate change strike, showing solidarity with groups around the world holding similar events. Bernie Sanders’s plan on climate change is more expensive than any of the other plans that have been put out, and yet it is the only plan that will save the planet. His plan would declare climate change to be a national emergency, aim to develop renewable energy, and give aid to the poor countries that will be worst affected by the crisis. The plan will cost $16 trillion, in contrast to other plans which have all been estimated at less than $3 trillion. However, the cost matches the threat; climate change is an existential threat to this country. If we want to fight it, we can’t dip our toes in the water. We must take it seriously.
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who will remain uncorrupted during his presidency. He is the only candidate who has promised not to take big-donor money in both the primary and the general election. He has remained uncorrupted for forty years. Not everyone will agree with Bernie’s politics, but his honesty separates him from most of the rest of Washington, D.C. Bernie is a candidate who will live up to his promises, fight for the American people, and bring the change that this country so desperately needs. There is no time for lying incremental centrists in a time where the United States is experiencing both a suicide epidemic and an opiod epidemic. No candidate besides Sanders can be trusted to take those issues seriously; they have remained ignored for years and will continue to be so unless a different sort of candidate is elected.
It’s time to catch up with the rest of the world. Germany has had universal healthcare for over a century. Today, Germany is one of the world’s most prosperous countries. China has taken drastic actions to combat climate change and is now the world’s leader in green energy. Their country has not fallen apart. It is time to transform this country into a modern nation. We can no longer tolerate an infrastructure that gets a D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Nor can we tolerate the staggering class divide this country now faces. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan each led a revolution that fundamentally changed the United States, and the time has come for another such revolution. If we take action now, there is hope for the future. Bernie Sanders is the leader that will ensure prosperity for decades to come.
Matthew Akins ’22, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at MAkins22@wooster.edu.