Senator Bernie Sanders is Coming to San Diego on Friday: Here’s What You Need to Know
Senator Bernie Sanders is returning to San Diego on Friday (3/22) as part of a campaign swing through California. Over five thousand people have already indicated an interest in seeing the Vermont Senator speak at a late afternoon rally at Waterfront Park. (RSVP requested)
Sanders' most recent prior visit to California was last October as part of a nationwide effort to get out the vote ahead of the historic midterm election cycle. This trip follow stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
On Wednesday, Sanders will speak at a noontime rally in support of UPTE-CWA striking workers at UCLA. More than 40,000 University of California employees will be picketing on UC campuses this week, challenging growing inequality and a drive to privatize services at the university. UPTE Healthcare and AFSCME workers will strike in solidarity.
Additional stops over the weekend will include Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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Fear not, ye fans of other candidates! I’ll be scattering these basic explainers throughout the year as time allows. Bernie got to go first because he’s coming to town. I have not made up my mind about who to support and don’t feel like I need to at this time.
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Meet the Candidate
From Biography.com:
Independent politician Bernie Sanders was born on September 8, 1941, in New York. He grew up in Brooklyn as the youngest of two sons of Jewish immigrants from Poland. His father worked as a paint salesman. As part of a struggling working-class family, Sanders recognized early on America's economic disparity. As he told the Guardian newspaper, "I saw unfairness. That was the major inspiration in my politics." Sanders also counts American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs as an important influence.
Senator Sanders in politics.
2016: Ran for the Democratic presidential nomination; came in second behind Hillary Clinton.
2007 - Present: U.S. Senator from Vermont
1991-2007: Member of the United States House of Representatives
1981-1989: Mayor of Burlington, Vermont
Ballotpedia Pages ◆ Endorsements ◆ Official Campaign Webpage
Campaign Facebook ◆ Local Page ◆ Campaign Twitter ◆ Instagram
Social media followers: Twitter 8.1 million, Facebook: 7.5 million, Instagram: 2.9 million.
The 2020 Campaign
February 19: Sanders announced he was running for president. Watch his announcement video here.
February 20/21: Sanders raised $4 million in the first 24 hours of his campaign, a number that grew to $6 million after 48 hours. 225,000 individuals contributed.
February 25: CNN Town Hall With Sen Bernie Sanders. Video.
March 2: Sanders officially kicked off his presidential campaign with a rally in Brooklyn, New York. He discussed his personal background in the speech, leading Phil Johnston, former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman, to comment, “He made the mistake in 2016 of not talking about his life’s story, his experience and struggles growing up, in contrast to Trump — he’s correcting that mistake this time.”
March 4: Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, along with six other members of Congress, signed a pledge to end “forever wars” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Niger, Somalia, and Thailand, among other countries.
March 5: The candidate signed a pledge, required by the Democratic National Committee, saying, “I will run a Democrat, accept the nomination of my party, and I will serve as a Democrat if elected."
March 15: Campaign staff announces they will unionize, joining United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400. Sanders tweeted that he was "proud" of the historical marker. "We cannot just support unions with words, we must back it up with actions," Sanders said. "On this campaign and when we are in the White House, we are going to make it easier for people to join unions, not harder."
Things You Should Know:
Over the past five years, 75% of Sanders’ campaign funds have come from small donors in amounts of less than $200. His top sources of funding include MoveOn.org, University of California employees, two postal-employee unions, and the Communication Workers of America. The 2020 campaign already has people signed up for $600,000 a month in recurring donations.
He is the most popular senator among constituents in America. The people from Vermont who elected him really like him.
His campaign is the most open about running in opposition to Donald Trump, via Rolling Stone: He writes about “running against a president who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy,” adding that Trump is leading us “in an authoritarian direction.”
Sanders is more popular with women than with men, and has more support among African Americans and Latinos than whites, according to a December Quinnipiac University national poll.
Quick Takes on the Issues
Healthcare: He was the lead Senate sponsor of the 2017 “Medicare For All” bill, which would launch universal health care and end employer-provided health insurance. Sanders would fund the plan through multiple sources: a 6.2 percent charge on employers, a 2.2 percent fee on most families, increased marginal tax rates for incomes $250,000 and higher, increased taxes on capital gains, and a larger estate tax for the wealthiest.
Climate Change: He is a co-sponsor of a resolution calling for a “Green New Deal”. He calls for a carbon tax with the aim of slashing U.S. emissions by 40% by 2030, and 80% by 2050. Would end all federal subsidies for the gas, oil and coal industries. Additionally, Sanders supports investigating “climate denier” corporations that have spent money raising doubts about climate change.
Immigration: Most undocumented immigrants who are in the country now would receive a path to citizenship under Sanders’ immigration plan. Calls for a restructuring of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Education: He advocates for tuition-free public colleges and universities, and reducing student loan debt by cutting all student loan interest rates in half. Sanders has proposed paying for this with a transaction tax on large Wall Street firms, raising $600 billion over a decade.
Economic Inequality: Sanders would divide large banks — those with assets worth more than 3 percent of the nation’s GDP — into smaller entities and charge a new fee for high-risk investment practices, including credit default swaps. He would also ban financial industry executives from serving on the Fed’s 12 regional boards of directors.
He is campaigning on a national $15-an-hour minimum wage for all U.S. workers.
Sanders is a co-sponsor of a bill (With Sen. Gillibrand) to create the nation’s first universal paid family leave program.
Sanders has also co-sponsored legislation, titled the Paycheck Fairness Act, that would bar employers from retaliating against workers who ask about their wages, as well as making employers liable to civil litigation.
He advocates for Social Security expansion, paid for by subjecting all incomes above $250,000 to the 6.2% payroll tax.
Social/Civil Rights Issues: Says abortion should be legal, with few or no government limits. Opposes policies that discriminate based on sexual preference or gender identity.
His criminal justice platform will include legalizing marijuana, ending cash bail throughout the United States, and abolishing private prisons. Has called for “automatic” federal investigations of deaths in police custody.
Gun Reform: Would ban assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines or equipment allowing more than ten rounds to be fired at once.. Repeal law protecting some gun manufacturers. He supports universal background checks and voted for the Manchin-Toomey legislation expanding federal background checks.
Sanders has changed his position and now opposes a gun law protecting some gun manufacturers and sellers from civil lawsuits. He believes states, not the federal government, can handle waiting periods for handguns.
Voting: Sanders would support limiting corporate and interest group spending in campaigns.
He has proposed a constitutional amendment effectively reversing the Supreme Court’s Citizen United ruling. Would also require any organization to disclose election-related campaign expenditures of $10,000 or more.
Foreign Affairs: Advocates for diplomacy to end Syrian conflict. Pull out troops, but in different way from Trump.
Says war powers must get more rigorous oversight and/or approval from Congress.
In both Afghanistan and Syria, Sanders has said that he believes the U.S. should remain involved, though with no ground troop presence.
Sanders would end all U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, and was a main co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill passed by the Senate to force the Pentagon to end its involvement there. In a tweet, Sanders wrote that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has murdered activists, heads a despotic regime and should be held accountable.
My Analysis
Senator Sanders has single-handedly moved political discourse in the U.S. at a time when it’s clear that marketplace oriented policies aren’t cutting it. He can call his policies ‘Democratic Socialism’ or ‘Free Pizza on Tuesdays’ for all I care.
I like much of what he proposes, but have questions about his ability to actually accomplish these things, should he get elected. I also realize if you don’t ask/demand/organize around issues, nothing happens.
His campaign/revolution is about organizing lots of people to both get elected and make things happen and that’s a good thing.
Some of his most supportive people come with an “it’s my way or the highway” attitude that ignores history and unnecessarily makes enemies, and that's a bad thing.
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