No I’m not voting Bernie for the free stuff. Sure, a $15 minimum wage would be great. As would free college tuition and health care. And I’m certainly not opposed to toppling our oligarchical system driven by mass income inequality. But I also realize that the United States isn’t Scandinavia, and that cutting corporate loopholes and adding progressive wealth and capital gains taxes won’t solve our economic woes, nor will they pay for the hefty social safety net programs for which Bernie is advocating. And that’s not to mention the bulwark of Tea Party opposition he’d face in office. Don’t get me wrong—economic reform (among many, many other issues) is a must, but that’s not why I’m voting for Bernie.
In his book "Republic, Lost," Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig delineates between what he sees as ‘liberal’ and ‘progressive’ politics. Progressivism has long been erroneously aligned with Leftist politics, Lessig argues, when in actuality it is entirely non-partisan: an agenda that seeks to reform government corruption. Lessig, also a long shot 2016 Democratic nominee, contends that progressives in the U.S. were largely born out of the Progressive Era, a period championed by leaders spanning the political gamut, including presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Yes, you read that right—Theodore Roosevelt, a beacon of the Republican Party in the early 20th century. Roosevelt was a progressive whose political objectives revolved around reforming political institutions, purging corruption from government and ensuring that the power of democracy lay in the hands of all, not a few. Sound like anyone you know?
Well, yes, actually: Bernie Sanders fits the bill. Sanders is the only viable candidate who’s truly a progressive, a government reformer. Near the top of his platform sits campaign finance reform, a plank that includes a constitutional amendment overturning the disastrous Supreme Court case Citizens United, and, more importantly, a push toward publicly funded elections. Campaign finance reform should be an a priori issue for citizens of all political stripes, radical and reactionary. Teddy fought for the same progressive cause during his tenure, calling for a ban on corporate campaign donations that resulted in the Tillman Act of 1907. He understood that “There is no enemy of free government more dangerous and none so insidious as the corruption of the electorate,” and so does Bernie.
Our current system, fueled by unlimited yet entirely legal bribes thinly veiled as ‘campaign contributions,’ eliminates the voice of the American people. Politicians have become wholly dependent on big donors rather than the electorate, resulting in a gift economy where “ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States,” as highlighted by a viral 2014 Princeton study. These reasons alone are sufficient to espouse the need for a truly progressive president, regardless of one’s partisanship. Heaven knows we have far to many problems to tackle, but let’s fix our own democracy first. The rest will follow.
Terlep is a senior political science major from Naperville, Illinois.