Op-ed: Crash and Bern

To presidential candidates ignorance isn't exactly bliss, but it can equate to votes. Many criticize Trump's supporters for being ignorant, and many are, but it is also ignorant to say that the candidate with the young vote doesn't have the same issue. In case you haven't caught on, I'm referring to Bernie Sanders, the old, grumpy, socialist presidential candidate who has somehow won over the vote of millennials. So again, let's fight ignorance with facts.

 Bernie Sanders seeks the Democratic nomination
for President and will be on the ballot in
tomorrow's Pennsylvania Primary

1. Bernie is by far the worst candidate when it comes to foreign policy. Case in point, his strong “anti-war” stance has often been hard to locate in his voting history, supporting bombing Yugoslavia in 1999, and despite voting against war in Iraq, he voted to fund the Iraq war as well as the war in Afghanistan. The issue is not simply that he has been pro-war, but that he does not understand how foreign affairs work, funding things that he vehemently opposes.
2. Simply put, charisma does not equal effectiveness. Just because Bernie says he will do something doesn't mean he can, especially since Congress is not made up of the young socialists that will vote for Bernie. Learn the lesson that Obama taught: just because a President campaigns to do something doesn't mean that they can.
3. Speaking of which, the only concept that may be more ludicrous than Trump's proposal to build a wall is Bernie's concept of free college. Not only would this cost an enormous amount of money, but it would also create two types of inflation. First, it would likely inflate the dollar as more people join higher paying jobs and would eventually reset itself. However, when this happens it is likely that a Master's degree would become today's version of college, and school would be extended four more years.
4. This brings me to inflation, a concept Sanders doesn't seem to understand. He wants to double the minimum wage to $15 an hour to “close the wealth gap”. Instead, it would likely only devalue the dollar once again, and cause extremely dangerous inflation that has been known to cause recessions. Throwing more money in the system by raising wages doesn't close the wealth gap, it simply changes what we view as the value of a dollar. In simple terms, things like the poverty level, average income, and taxes would allow double as an effect.
5. If you're anti-gun, be careful about Sanders' face value position on guns. He touts his D- rating, but has spent much of this campaign ridiculing Hillary Clinton's “radical positions” on gun control. In fact, if you want to blame gun manufacturers for gun deaths or want to see guns disappear then Sanders certainly isn't your candidate. In fact, he even voted for several NRA bills, including Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act in 2006.
6. Socialism is simply a flawed concept, which only stays around because it promotes likeable buzzwords such as “nice”, “fair” and “equal”. It controls people's lives to the point that it often opposes freedom, making choices for the group as a whole instead of allowing hard working citizens advance. There simply is no such thing as complete equality, the core component of socialism. Also, to go along with that, it absolutely kills economic growth, penalizing success and rewarding failure in order to approach equality. For the record, if an economy doesn't grow there's really only one thing it can do, regress.
7. Sanders, along with being the worst in foreign policy, also runs the worst campaign. In simple terms, to be elected you have to play America's political game, something Sanders refuses to do. At the least he could completely expose Clinton as a criminal for her email scandal and easily win the Democratic campaign, but inexplicably refuses to do so. Therefore, a vote for Sanders is a vote for a one term president.
8. He's a hypocrite! Despite many cries on his campaign to end tax deductions and close loopholes, last year he and his wife paid a 13.5% tax rate after taking about $60,000 in itemized deductions, exactly the loopholes he wants to close. Deeds not words Bernie, deeds not words.
9. This point shouldn't need to be made, but it must be. Don't just jump on the Bernie bandwagon because it makes you look nice and fair in today's sensitive society. Bandwagon have extremely dangerous potential, especially in the social media era. Question the popular opinion; don't just mindlessly accept it.
10. This next point may be hard to comprehend, so let me tell you a story. You've worked hard in life and make a lot of money, let's say $400,000 annually. Someone, let's call them President Bob, wants to take away 40% of that to redistribute to the poor. In case you weren't paying attention, you know actually make $240,000 a year, before the state and local governments take their chunk, so let's call that number $200,000. Others who didn't work as hard to get ahead pay no taxes, but since you went to college and make $400,000, you end up paying for things they need and for all the things that the unnecessary government does. Sound like a fair system? If not, you probably don't support Sanders.

This op-ed reflects the opinion of the stated author. It does not constitute an official position of the Lampeter-Strasburg School District, nor the LSNews.org editorial board.

--Kevin Reed, LSNews.org Columnist

Edited: BP