Here’s Why You Should Never Vote for Bernie Sanders

By JOE RONCA
Staff Writer

It is becoming increasingly likely that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the upcoming Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary held soon afterwards. If Sanders is able to secure victory in both battleground states, then he is all but guaranteed to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the presidency in 2016.
Sanders seems to inspire much more of a positive reaction than Clinton, who at times appears to be simply acting as she rambles on about her support for the poor. Say what you want about Senator Sanders, but he truly is battling for what he believes in.
That simple fact is the main reason why he has been able to drum up such high levels of support, especially among young people. Despite the fact that seemingly all of my peers are supporters of the Vermont senator, I have numerous issues with the Sanders campaign.
Bernie Sanders is a candidate unlike any other in recent American political history. He is a left-wing insurgent who seeks to destroy the current American economic system and spark a political revolution. He is a socialist, plain and simple, and he has been unashamedly open about that fact for close to 50 years.
Sanders believes that capitalism is an inherently flawed system that keeps the poor in poverty, while the profits earned by the rich only soar higher and higher.
He believes that we need to break up the Wall Street financial institutions that our government bailed out in 2008 due to the premise that they were “too big to fail.” This view of the economy as a game rigged against the people is the fundamental premise behind Sanders’ political ideology, and behind his campaign.
However, the belief in this premise is the most compelling reason to be against Sanders and his bid for the White House.
Sanders has made it abundantly clear that he does not believe in capitalism. In short, he believes that government, not individual consumers and business owners, is best positioned to make economic decisions in this country. Simply put, Sanders does not believe that Americans can use their own intelligence and hard work to overcome obstacles and achieve economic prosperity.
He believes that the federal government must step in in order for the vast majority of Americans to reach any level of economic success. In short, the man simply does not believe in the American Dream. No, Sanders believes that government, not hard work, is the key to achieving success and prosperity as an individual.
The American Dream is the fundamental premise behind the United States. The promise of liberty and success drove millions of poor immigrants across the ocean to this great nation. Through their own hard work these nameless millions achieved success and constructed the greatest economic and military power that history has ever known.
Bernie Sanders simply does not believe in this ideal. To me, that should instantly disqualify him from holding any sort of public office, never mind the presidency.
Now, this is not to say that Senator Sanders does not have legitimate political grievances. However, a person who does not believe in something as fundamental as the American Dream is simply not fit to be this nation’s leader. What has made America great and historically unique is the idea that anyone could achieve anything with a little hard work and ingenuity.
This is symbolized by our nation’s commitment to capitalism and the ideal of the free market. Sure, capitalism is not perfect, and not everyone can achieve prosperity on their own, but one of our central characteristics as a nation is our capitalist system. To believe in any other economic system is simply un-American, and no single individual has better represented the American anti-capitalist movement over the past 20 years then Senator Sanders.
Now, even if Sanders were not proposing such anti-American actions as seizing private property, there still is a perfectly good reason for not voting for him. That reason is evident. You see, there is one simple problem with the socialism that Senator Sanders supports so vigorously. The single biggest issue with socialism is that it simply does not work.
Socialist economic systems throughout the world have simply not had economic success. A great current example of this is the Latin American nation of Venezuela. Venezuela is a country sitting atop some of the world’s largest oil reserves. However, for close to 15 years the country has been governed by socialists who have sought to equal the economic playing field and raise the standard of living for Venezuela’s poor.
The Venezuelan experiment with socialism began in 1999 when former military officer Hugo Chavez was elected president. Chavez immediately restructured Venezuela’s economy and government, hoping to promote “socialism in the 21st century.” However, Venezuela’s economy is perhaps the worst in the world. Inflation currently stands at 68 percent per year, American corporations are losing huge sums of money there, food shortages are rampant, and foreign airlines have stopped flying into Caracas.
Chavez was able to use his magnanimous personality to keep things in line, but in 2013 he died after a long battle with cancer. Under his successor, President Nicolas Maduro, there have been riots and massive protests against the government. In short, the country has begun to break apart at the seams.
This failure is not unique to Venezuela, but is inherent with socialism around the world. Just look at North and South Korea as an example. At the end of the Korean War in 1953, both North and South Korea possessed similarly-sized populations and similar amounts of territory. To serve as a sort of natural control, both countries populations spoke the same language and are the same ethnicity. North Korea pursued state-planned socialism, while South Korea pursued free market capitalism.
Today, North Korea is continually racked by famine and is barely visible from space due to lack of electric power. By contrast, South Korea boasts an extremely advanced and highly industrialized economy that is the envy of the world. In fact, South Korea has the highest rate of internet access on Earth, while the North has one of the lowest. Also, South Korean products like Hyundai cars and Samsung phones are sold around the world. In essence, socialism has failed on the Korean Peninsula and worldwide.
Whoever you vote for this election cycle, it should not be Bernie Sanders. Sanders does not support the American Dream, something which should be a prerequisite for being the president of the United States.
His lack of support for capitalism and the American Dream is a deal breaker for me as a voter. Also, the socialism that Sanders supports has failed worldwide. Regimes such as those in Communist Cuba and the Sandinista dictatorship in Nicaragua, both of which have received Sanders’ support and admiration in the past, have failed to deliver economic prosperity.
In short, Sanders is an un-American candidate politically, and his economic policies will result in stagnation and failure. If you seek economic prosperity and equality in America in the 21st century, than turning to Bernie Sanders and a discredited political ideology from the last century is not the path you should choose.
No, the path to real economic prosperity is to further embrace free market capitalism, the same system that has raised the standard of living in this country to heights previously undreamt of.