[quote]By Conner Lovely
Guest Writer
Photo by Jack Heerhold[/quote]

I admire Bernie Sanders’ authenticity. He sticks true to his beliefs; He has not been bought out by some huge political donor either. He is a truthful candidate, which is hard to come by nowadays. Also, he has captured a previously disengaged demographic, that is the young people of America. All of this is extremely admirable, however he is the worst presidential candidate of 2016.

Bernie Sanders identifies himself as a “democratic socialist”. By definition, democratic socialism is “a political belief that all goods and services produced are owned by the state then profit is redistributed evenly regardless of position or class”. So when people say Bernie Sanders is un-American, they are very wrong. He is only HALF un-American.

His beliefs that advocate a democratic political system are extremely “American” and are wholeheartedly believed in by most Americans. However, his strong beliefs of having a socialist economic system are un-American. He is attempting to recreate a Scandinavian Socialist system and constantly reiterates the fact that Sweden, Finland, and Denmark follow this economic model. For some reason, he believes that Americans want to be more like unsuccessful European countries. He states that they have seen great growth under this system when it couldn’t be further from the truth. Swedish scholar Nima Sanandaji, states that “the affluence and cultural norms upon which Scandinavia’s social-democratic policies rest are not the product of socialism”. In fact, these nations prospered “during periods characterized by free-market policies, low or moderate taxes, and limited state involvement in the economy”. After these very prosperous times, they instilled socialist policy changes which then caused an economic downfall which resulted in decreased productivity, higher unemployment, and larger amounts of people on welfare. This downturn in economic productivity has since leveled off and these countries now lie far below the United States in economic output ranking. So why would we, as a country, want to decrease our economic output and apply an unsuccessful economic system to our thriving country? Personally I don’t know why, ask the economically incompetent politician who came up with these ideas.          

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So while his truthfulness of personal ideologies shine through, this essentially disengages him from the American public as socialism is widely hated in this country because it ruins the idea of the American Dream. It limits a person’s ability to move out of poverty, into the middle class, and eventually into the upper class as socialism takes from those who have earned a large sum of money and gives it to those who could not find success in the American economy.  It forces both the successful and unsuccessful to end up in the same socioeconomic position. So why wouldn’t you vote for Bernie? Don’t you want to make sure that your hard work gets penalized by high tax rates?

Along with his very illogical views on the entire economy, his idea of “free college” also proves his incompetence. A few years ago, the government decided to give out loans to students across the country. Despite the fact that the increased government involvement caused an increase of price of college, he believes that further government intervention will solve the problem, according to FEE. That is like going to a California forest fire and dumping hundreds of gallons of gasoline on it. Wow, bet you can really feel the Bern now!

In addition to his economic and social incompetence, Senator Sanders also has said he plans to end “structural racism”. Yet, he voted against “the Higher Education Amendments Act” just a couple of years ago. This act prevented any college or university from discriminating in the admission process based on race, sex, ethnicity, color, or national origin. This act attempted to stop a very integral part of structural racism, yet he refused to vote for it in order to please his other Democratic party members. It seems very odd to me that a man with such high regard for civil rights would promote structural racism in the very institutions that educate our youth.

As I said before, Bernie has captured the minds of many young people, including many in this school. So before you vote for him or retweet a photo or video with his beliefs on them, I urge you to look at the long term repercussions of voting for a man who is against the very economic system that has allowed our country to become the world power that it is today. Additionally, I hope you truly analyze his unattainable and often imaginative claims and how he will actually accomplish these goals. Whether it be racking up over $19 trillion in debt or taxing the upper class over 50 percent of their annual income, according to Forbes, I truly hope you do not see these steps toward socialism are actually viable and sustainable. And if you do, I urge you to look deeper in order to find the truth.

While Bernie’s transparency and truthfulness do appeal to many, his illogical and incompetent ideals limit his demographic to a very small portion of the population. Also, they would lead to an American economic collapse. In other words, Bernie absolutely sucks. But if you are not convinced that Bernie Sanders is a bad candidate, I know I can convince you that Hillary is just as bad with this video of “Hillary Clinton Lying for 13 Minutes Straight”…