In April Senator Bernie Sanders visited Wyoming where he tried to persuade the local people to vote for him at the upcoming presidential primaries. In his speech at University of Wyoming he talked about a wide range of the political issues that concern the various groups of the American society. He started his speech by saying that he was an underdog at the beginning of the presidential campaign, but now the gap between him and Hilary Clinton is very small even though he does not have many funds and relies mainly on the individual campaign donations (Sanders).
Senator Bernie Sanders summarizes his campaign by paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln saying that his campaign is “of the people, by the people and for the people” (Sanders). Therefore he would like to focus on improving the lives of the ordinary people in the USA and finding the new status-quo between the interests of the large companies, the people, and the government. Sanders thinks that all ideas that changed the American society for the better were started by the grassroots movements and the top-down approach cannot be effective (Sanders). So he hopes that the people become more active, ask for more from the politicians and come to the poll stations, because the Democrats usually win when the voting turnout is high (Sanders).
In order to persuade the listeners, Senator Sanders used a lot of reliable data and facts. For example, he said that in the last 30 years the middle-class has been shrinking and the women have been earning 21% less money than men (Sanders). In general, he focused on the idea that the society should have the government that will be more responsive and oriented at the people’s needs. For instance, he said that in the USA the women should receive the paid medical leave when they have a child (Sanders). In terms of the medical care, despite the presence of the Affordable Care Act there are still many issues that the government has to resolve. The same thing concerns the higher education – it should be affordable and the young people should not owe $50,000-70,000 in loan debt after they graduate (Sanders).
Senator Sanders also talked about the U.S. fiscal policies. He said several times that the large companies should not be the only stakeholders that benefit from the economic growth. According to him, it is important to prohibit tax avoidance by means of the offshore countries like Panama and secondly the minimum wages should be increased up to $15 (Sanders). In addition, the taxes collected by the U.S. government should be invested into the public infrastructure of the cities (Sanders).
In my opinion, in general Senator Sanders raised some important issues that should be reconsidered in order to build a stronger country. The level of inequality in the USA is growing despite the fact the American economy has been developing for 5 years in a row (World Bank). So the government should think of the new social and economic policy that will be beneficial for the millions of people that need help. Nevertheless, Senator Sander’s views are a very superficial. It is easy to say that the USA should not have invested into the infrastructure in Iraq and the minimum wages should increase up to $15 in the short term future. When a politician suggests such radical ideas, he or she gets a lot of supporters and critics at same time. Nevertheless in my opinion Bernie Sanders is mostly right and it seems that the political establishment understands that the USA reached a peak in its development and now there should be some reforms in order to adjust to the effects of globalization, demographic changes, etc. Senator Sanders is an experienced politician and he feels what the society needs nowadays. So for him his campaign is a good opportunity to speak about some controversial and problematic issues. No matter what the results of the presidential primaries will be, he has already become a popular public figure that a lot of people respect nationwide.
Works Cited
Bernie Sanders Speeches and Events. “Full Event: Bernie Sanders Wisconsin Victory Speech
at Laramie, Wyoming (4-5-16) Full Speech HD”. Online video. YouTube. 5 April
2016. Web. 9 April 2016.
GDP growth (annual %). The World Bank Group. n.d. Web. 9 April 2016.
