Why can’t all Senators be like Bernie Sanders? Every time I hear the Independent Vermont representative speak, I am consistently impressed with his unrestrained audacity to speak to the truth of U.S. political-economic system. Maybe his honesty stems from his independence from the two party system — Sanders is a self described Democratic Socialist and the only Senator ever elected to the upper house of Congress having openly advertised himself as such.
Last Thursday, Sanders gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor in which he condemned the ever growing income inequalities that have grown in our country over the past 3o years. I guess it
should be no surprise that a socialist would do such a thing, but he presents us with facts not ideology. They are facts that are rarely talked about and usually go unquestioned by the relatively complicit masses of our center-right political establishment these days. Like the fact that we essentially live in an upside-down wealth distribution pyramid, where the top 1% of our country’s population earn a larger share of nation’s income, more than double what the bottom 50% earn. The fact that in a time of economic crisis following an unprecedented government bailout, the super rich are the only economic class who have seen their incomes rise while the middle class, the hallmark of a healthy society, is being squeezed out. The fact that supposedly fiscally conservative politicians think that the best way to reduce the deficit is to blow a giant hole in it by extending tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and won’t use them to stimulate the economy. And the fact that millionaires and billionaire’s bankroll the elections of both political parties, and are then expected to receive something in return — perhaps the most memorable quote from Sanders, “That’s what this place [The Senate] is all about isn’t it? They [billionaires] fund the campaigns so they get what’s due to them?” Some may call this class warfare… I call it our current state of affairs:
