I have discovered that to find unbiased reporting on the state of American politics, I’m better off searching in foreign news publications. I consider myself someone who has become increasingly disillusioned toward the Democratic Party due to their continued bumbling since the fiasco that was the 2016 election. The 2020 election has brought the modern Democratic establishment into the lime-light, warts and all. 

As I watch the talking heads on TV desperately trying to convince the American public to vote against their own best interests, I increasingly relate to the woman in New Hampshire;  she voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries because the media was trying to bury him under a tidal wave of negative press. 

Why are Democrats so insistent on repeating the 2016 election? There was a noted phenomenon of people voting for him because he was so demonized by the same people that they hated. The enemy of their enemy became their friend. Haven’t Democrats learned that Trump supporters didn’t vote for Trump because he was a regular candidate? Democrats cannot fight Trump and win with yet another “low-energy” establishment marionette. As with every election, there comes a time when one decides whether they will vote with their emotions, or for policies. Are we going to allow the same identity politics to decide another election?

Full disclosure, I do not identify with conservative politics. However, it does not take the top minds of a Koch-funded Think-Tank to figure out Joe Biden is not a viable opponent against Trump. 

Besides the allegations of dementia and the fact that he keeps smelling people’s hair, his events simply do not have the same energy as his counterpart: Bernie Sanders. Biden is mediocre in both stirring genuine emotion and bringing innovative ideas to the table.

I like Sanders. The main accusation his opponents throw at him is the same label that he wears with pride: Democratic Socialist. Whenever I hear a pundit decry yet another of his progressive policies as communism, it reminds me of growing up and having my grandparents refer to my Playstation 2 as a “Nintendo.” There is an obvious and distinct difference between Marxism-Leninism and Scandinavian-style systems. The American public needs to stop clutching its pearls every time it hears the word “socialism.” 

Studies like “The Spirit Level” of December, 2009, demonstrate that more equitable societies experience less societal discord. Rampant inequality has been shown to worsen societal health as a whole while increasing violence across the board. Is it any surprise that America feels so divided in our age of unprecedented and rampant inequality? Taking steps to reduce this problem is in our best interest. Much like going on a diet if one is obese.

I have hope that people will show up to vote for a candidate that actually believes in his own plans for reform for this broken system that directly affects us all, but I’ve been told by more experienced voters that this usually isn’t the case.  No other candidate had or has anything close to the platform set forward like that of Sanders. His platform is fresh and his proposed healthcare plan is worth a look over. 

Single-payer healthcare seems like a no-brainer to me. It’s currently improving the lives of citizens in 17 countries that are less wealthy than the United States. To those asking how we would pay for it: the same way that we are currently paying for multiple conflicts and state pensions for baby boomers. Taxes. 

We cannot keep cutting taxes. It’s unsustainable long-term. Especially if the idea of cutting military-related expenditures keeps getting dismissed out-of-hand. We somehow have managed to end up in the situation where we keep slashing taxes while still being in de-facto war and occupying the Middle-East (according to a 2020 New York Times Article titled, “Despite Vow To End ‘Endless Wars,’ Here’s Where About 200,000 Troops Remain.”)

This is unprecedented. It’s very confusing to me how one can call themselves a patriot and not question the uncontrolled use of America’s military and lack of benefits originating from citizenship. 

As Eisenhower said best: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

Gregorios Mihalopoulos is a sophomore, general university studies major.