Bernie Sanders supporters: why do you support Bernie Sanders?

[The One]

Or what makes Bernie Sanders supporters you know support him?

[A Delicious Cashew]

I'm not a Bernie Sanders supporter, but I would assume its due to him really being the most "traditional" candidate left. All the Republicans are trash or have some flaw in them, and if you don't like Hilary, you're stuck with Bernie.

 

They also might like Bernie's policies and how he's trying to make everything free for everyone (no matter how impossible that is)

[Don Quixote]

Because they see him getting praised on Imgur. 

[Buy my mixtape fam]

I'm still undecided, but it's most likely because the only other Democratic opposition is Hillary, and people are incredibly caught up in how "scandalous" her whole family name is, after Benghazi and her husband and what not.  People also seemed to be turned on by his economic views to "tax the rich, make college less expensive" etc. 

[silencedotmid]

Bernie is the only remaining candidate that is opposed to mass surveillance. There was Rand Paul, but now he's out. That's probably the #1 most important platform to me.

Campaign financing has been fucked six ways from sunday ever since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling, and I'm glad that Sanders is taking such a strong stance against corporations abusing loopholes to funnel limitless undisclosed funds into the political process.
 

Of course, it also helps that I'm a bleeding-heart liberal through and through.

[Syndaz]

Best of the worse. 

[The Oddball]

He's going to make anime real

[silencedotmid]

And I might as well unload this rant while I'm here.

As much of a Bernie supporter as I am, I can't say the same about his vocal fanbase.

 

Often labeled as "berniebots", these are the people that like Bernie Sanders so much that they refuse to accept anyone else. These are the people that demonize Hillary Clinton for not being liberal enough, even though they're on the same side in the end. These are the people that share around clearly right-wing articles from Fox and Blaze that demonize Hillary Clinton and fail to realize that they're sabotaging their own party.

Compromise is unfortunately an important part of the US political system, and some of these Bernie fans are simply unable to compromise, even if they have to ruin their own party's candidates to do so. I worry that if Hillary gets nominated, some Bernie supporters will refuse to vote for her, ending in a Democratic loss.

 

So I'll say it once and I'll say it again: If you're a Bernie Sanders supporter but Hillary Clinton gets nominated, you get your sorry ass to the voting booths on November 8th and check her name off.

[Professional Map Painter]

Best of the worse. 

Elections in a nutshell.

[Knight]

I'm not a bernie supporter, but I would agree that right now, he's probably one of the best of these terrible candidates. He appeals to the younger people because of all the free stuff like college, heathcare, stuff that'll cost an arm and a leg. 

 

people are incredibly caught up in how "scandalous" her whole family name is, after Benghazi and her husband and what not.

 

I've always thought a medieval beheading of anyone in that family tree would be the best way to fix that problem

[Sniper Noob]

In my opinion, there are 3 types of candidates running:

 - Republicans: Not a fan of any of their policies really, and most of them have been proven ineffective/harmful in the past.

 - Hillary: Basically a continuation of Obama. I could live with it, but it doesn't really excite me moving forward.

 - Bernie: The only candidate that's honest, trustworthy, and has serious progressive ideas.

 

I like his stances on social issues, his foreign policy ideas are good/not bad, the fact that he's running a campaign by the people rather than a campaign by the billionaire donors is amazing, and his economic policies would make us more like a western European democracy. I know people here are scared of the word "socialism" despite the fact that many popular policies are already socialist, but becoming a quasi-socialist country is appealing when compared with the shitshow we have now. Many aspects of socialism work very well in other countries, I see no reason not to learn from their successes. 

 

That being said, if he's not the nominee, I'll be voting for Hillary. I just don't like her as much as Bernie. Bernie might not win, but he absolutely deserves to.

[silencedotmid]

In my opinion, there are 3 types of candidates running:

 - Republicans: Not a fan of any of their policies really, and most of them have been proven ineffective/harmful in the past.

 - Hillary: Basically a continuation of Obama. I could live with it, but it doesn't really excite me moving forward.

 - Bernie: The only candidate that's honest, trustworthy, and has serious progressive ideas.

 

I like his stances on social issues, his foreign policy ideas are good/not bad, the fact that he's running a campaign by the people rather than a campaign by the billionaire donors is amazing, and his economic policies would make us more like a western European democracy. I know people here are scared of the word "socialism" despite the fact that many popular policies are already socialist, but becoming a quasi-socialist country is appealing when compared with the shitshow we have now. Many aspects of socialism work very well in other countries, I see no reason not to learn from their successes. 

 

That being said, if he's not the nominee, I'll be voting for Hillary. I just don't like her as much as Bernie. Bernie might not win, but he absolutely deserves to.

Agreed on most fronts, but I don't think it's fair to clump all the republicans into the same group, even if none of them are likeable. Here's my interpretation.

 

We've got 3 types of republicans this time around:

Evangelical: These guys are devout christians and use their faith as a selling point, sometimes even over their policies. Ted Cruz and Ben Carson _{rip in peace ben} would fall into this.

 

Establishment: The candidates working their hardest to keep their whole party from collapsing by appealing to mainstream conservatives. However, being influenced by the success of Trump's far-right proposals, none of them are what I'd call moderates. These are John Kasich, Marco Rubio _{rip in peace rubio}, and Jeb! Bush _{rip in peace jeb}.

 

Donald Trump: ??????????????????????????????????????????

[`Yahiamice]

 why do you support Bernie Sanders?

 

 

Because he's not Trump

 

[/thread]

[Sniper Noob]

Agreed on most fronts, but I don't think it's fair to clump all the republicans into the same group, even if none of them are likeable. Here's my interpretation.

 

We've got 3 types of republicans this time around:

Evangelical: These guys are devout christians and use their faith as a selling point, sometimes even over their policies. Ted Cruz and Ben Carson would fall into this.

 

Establishment: The candidates working their hardest to keep their whole party from collapsing by appealing to mainstream conservatives. However, being influenced by the success of Trump's far-right proposals, none of them are what I'd call moderates. These are John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Jeb! Bush.

 

Donald Trump: ??????????????????????????????????????????

 

That's fair. To be honest I've just lost so much hope in the Republicans that I don't know enough details about them to divide them up like you have, but at face value that seems pretty accurate. 

[The Penguins]

 I know people here are scared of the word "socialism" despite the fact that many popular policies are already socialist

You should see the other PRS forums. "America is great without even needing socialism" "Why don't you beg more for free stuff". We have Social Security and Medicare geniuses

[Vaxx]

All I'm gonna say is this: 

 

Canada

[Explosion-chan]

I'm leaning towards Bernie, but his policies and etc don't seem like they'd be possible to accomplish with USA as it is now. For people less informed like me, he seems to honestly be a good person for a politic, which seems pretty rare.

[Bonzeye]

1. He is the most truthful candidate, he has pretested multiple wars in the middle east at a time when that was political suicide. And campaigned for racial equality when that was very unpopular as well.

2. He's planning on going after corporate America to get us out of our national debt instead of squeezing as much money as possible out of average Americans.

 

3. There are no other viable democratic candidates. Clinton has changed her stance on gay marriage since it has become a more popular idea, (proves she'll say whatever the polls want her to say) and the Benghazi incident proves she's both lazy and irresponsible. 

4. There are no other viable Republican candidates. They are either: 

- Incapable of working with others. Ted Cruz has a horrible history of being a stonewaller in the senate, and Donald Trump has never had to work with anyone in his life since he's been the CEO of several companies.

-Plan on governing with religion. Ben Carson is the scariest, most conservative bible thumper I've ever seen, and Rubio's "victory" speech at the Iowa caucus was mostly about "GOD BLESS AMERICA" 

[Hyperqube]

He appeals to the younger people because of all the free stuff like college, heathcare, stuff that'll cost an arm and a leg.

The thing is ... contrary to popular belief, Europe isn't a magical place of Narnia. I live in Belgium, and this is my situation:

• both me & my sister went to the universty (9 years in total), my parents aren't rich, yet they had no trouble paying for it.

  I looked it up: the current rate is €890 tuition per year (not counting the ~€300 for books & material)

  the idea you guys seem to have, that students get loans to get to collage ... is mind bogling.

• my medical bill amast to ~€200 this year I think (incl. doctor's appointment, but mostly because I had 3 cavities in my teeth - and one of them required a molar rooth canal)

  the idea not to go to the nearest doctor/dentist, but to have to compare prices - as though healthcare is a good you buy ... is mental

I don't think he appeals to the young people because of "all the free stuff."

I think the young people live in a global world; they see that on certain issues, other countries are much MUCH better.

 

 

Like Thrump, Bernie seems to spreads the idea: "Lets Make America Great Again!"

But instead of boasting, catchy one liners and empty promisses, he seems to know what he's doing.

[♠Derpeh♤]

While he is probably the "best of the worse" most of his supporters jump on his bandwagon when they hear that he is fighting for free education and giving a middle finger to corporate America/big companies without actually giving much thought about the repercussions of doing that.

Education is never free it comes from taxes, schools and all resources come from taxes. The "big companies" is America's back bone and a large bulk of the manufacturing sector only stay in America purely because of the government subsidies. Take that away and outsourcing becomes an issue since they will ditch America in favour of cheaper production in Asian countries which leads to loss of jobs...etc. What he says sounds good but his "method" of getting there are things which will never happen. If he gets in you'll basically see him fight for his first term for unrealistic goals.

 

 

The thing is ... contrary to popular belief, Europe isn't a magical place of Narnia. I live in Belgium, and this is my situation:

-snip-

 

Aussie here

We have free schooling but there are a lot of fundraisers and events to raise money when the school wants to get certain "upgrades"...etc Catholic schools run ~500AUD/term (4 terms a year). For university we need to take out a "interest free loan" with the government subsidising a lot of the costs and the loan repayments is taken out of your income once it reaches a certain number over several years. Think it costs roughly ~1k/6 Units of Credit (i.e. 1 Subject) which amounts to ~4k per semester, 8k per year ~24k for the average 3 year uni degree.

 

We get the "free healthcare" thing but most of the time unless it's an emergency you may end up waiting hours to see a doctor but there is the option of private healthcare and everything is pretty much instant (~1k/year for family?) where they will basically cover you for most things with a bunch of free shit which you most likely will never use... probably at most dental and eyecare but everything else :L

 

Edit: All values are obviously in AUD

[Chilled Soda]

i support bernie for his political policies

 

[Professional Map Painter]

I like his stances on social issues, his foreign policy ideas are good/not bad, the fact that he's running a campaign by the people rather than a campaign by the billionaire donors is amazing, and his economic policies would make us more like a western European democracy. I know people here are scared of the word "socialism" despite the fact that many popular policies are already socialist, but becoming a quasi-socialist country is appealing when compared with the shitshow we have now. Many aspects of socialism work very well in other countries, I see no reason not to learn from their successes. 

Except for the fact that we've got the whole shitshow that is the EU, the Euro and the economic recession. Socialist governments often run out of money because they like to spend it all, and then whoever is elected afterwards has to deal with the mess (often resulting in them being unpopular). In an ideal world, socialism would be lovely, but we certainly don't live in an ideal world.

[Hyperqube]

Except for the fact that we've got the whole shitshow that is the EU, the Euro and the economic recession.

Odd ... I could have SWORN the economic recession got it's roots by the abuses of the big banks ... kinda, like, ya know, the thing Bernie is AGAINST?

 

It's fine if you're not left-wing, and haters gonna hate and all, but it's like blaming Obama for the KKK.

 

 

 

(btw, can someone explain to me why Hillery uses the defense she went to the banks before the crisis, and say "cut it out"? because it doesn't make sense to me - if she did so before ... we all know how it turned out)

[Python.]

Likely gonna fall down to him and Trump. Hillary is just trying too hard and overdoing shit for things she can't fix

All the other republican candidates are tearing each other apart

And if Trump wins, who would like to house me in Europe?

[Sniper Noob]

(btw, can someone explain to me why Hillery uses the defense she went to the banks before the crisis, and say "cut it out"? because it doesn't make sense to me - if she did so before ... we all know how it turned out)

 

Because that's the only thing she can say other than "I helped create the problem" which obviously wouldn't get her any votes.