I choose Bernie

Wisconsin’s Presidential Primary 

The Battle for Democracy

The results of the primary elections on Super Tuesday have reduced the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination down to a two-person contest between former Vice-President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Because the delegate count between those two is very close, Wisconsin’s presidential preference primary on April 7^th becomes an even more important stop on the road to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee in June.

The national Democratic presidential primary has become a replay of the 2016 primary that pitted the moderate centrist, Hillary Clinton, against the progressive democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders. As we all remember, Bernie lost to Hillary who became the party’s standard bearer and then lost the presidency to Donald Trump even though she had more total votes cast for her than Trump did. 

We also all know that Trump’s presidency has not delivered on most of the things he promised on the 2016 campaign trail. It has also devolved into one of the most corrupt, conflict ridden, racist, misogynistic and ineffective administrations in modern history. This makes this Democratic primary all that more important. While we suspected what a Trump presidency would look like in 2016, now we know that another four-year Trump term will bring much more of the same. 

A majority of the voters in Trump’s electoral college victory states were enough to carry the day. All of the states Biden carried on Super Tuesday went for Trump in 2016 and are likely to vote for him again in 2020. This certainly dilutes the significance of Biden’s victories there this past Tuesday. Even though Biden won more states, the delegate count is all but even with Sanders’ wins in Vermont, Utah, Colorado and California.

The real contest now in play is for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Will it remain controlled by the corporatist centrists who trust Joe Biden not to rock their boats or will the torch be passed back to progressives who care more for working people, income equality, universal healthcare, women’s reproductive healthcare and protecting the environment?

The 2008 Obama presidential campaign set the stage for a progressive democratic comeback when it organized local campaigns like the one we mounted in Washington County. The message Obama’s organizers left with us was “we want the effort to continue after election day to support democratic initiatives and policies.” We took that message to heart and continued organizing and agitating to the point where we were able to open an office year-round in one of the reddest counties in Wisconsin. We have kept it open ever since and show no sign of slowing down.

Wisconsin voters can send a clear message on April 7^th.

If you cast your ballot for Joe Biden, the signal will be that you stand for the status quo in failed Democratic Party leadership. Biden voted for America’s longest war, allowing states to overturn the protections gained by Roe v. Wade for women’s reproductive health, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after attacking Prof. Anita Hill who stood up to accuse Thomas of inappropriate sexual conduct, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid and a host of other progressive legislative initiatives. Biden opposes most of the progressive policies put forward by the progressive wing of the party.

A vote for Bernie Sanders who carried Wisconsin in the 2016 presidential primary, will signal that now is the time for change. We desperately need a return to the progressive roots of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, embodied in Sanders’ visions of a Green New Deal, universal healthcare, affordable college education, strong labor unions, income equality, racial equality and protection of the planet. He has concrete plans on how to pay for these bold initiatives through taxes on the very wealthy and wall street speculators and cuts to military spending. Sanders’ policies come out on top in polls across the country with voters in all demographic groups. 

The unfounded fear is that America will not elect a “socialist,” or, as others here have labeled him, a “communist.” Sanders, by all measures is nowhere near communistic. He has never advocated having the government take over the means of production. He is more akin to European democratic socialists who embrace a more democratic capitalism that includes care for the less fortunate as well as profit. 

I supported Bernie Sanders in 2016 and I continue to support his candidacy this time around. He will bring our party and country back to more compassionate and caring policy positions that will benefit all of us, not just the privileged few.