Let the Voting Begin

By Bill Shein
February 5, 2016

Our brief, abbreviated, far-too-short presidential campaign (sarcasm heavy) has finally entered the brief, abbreviated, far-too-short (sarcasm heavier) phase where voters have their say. Where the oft-repeated, cringe-worthy claims that “the only poll that matters is on Election Day!” and “it will come down to voter turnout, Bob!” will finally play out.

Iowans will caucus on Monday night. Our Granite State neighbors head to the polls a week from Tuesday. People we don’t know in Nevada and South Carolina vote next. And Massachusetts the rest of the country follow in the weeks and months to come.

In the Republican race, Donald Trump continues to give long, windy, ain’t-I-grand speeches featuring little more than circular references to his poll results and endless, teenager-style taunts of opponents. When someone at a Trump event asked how he would “make America great again,” he replied, “You just watch.” The crowd erupted in cheers. Why? Who knows.

Meanwhile, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders appears to have delivered on his promise to organize millions of Americans into a “political revolution” to take on the broken, establishment status quo. And it may very well land him the Democratic nomination and perhaps the presidency.

We need voices like his in our politics and elsewhere. They open our collective eyes to not only what’s possible, but what’s necessary. What’s right. What’s just. What’s fair. What matters. We can bicker over the best way to make change happen, but those who diminish our vision and claim “oh, that can never happen” do a disservice to those who struggle – unnecessarily – every day. And for whom economic fairness, in particular, is long overdue.

Promoting transformational change while working to make people’s lives better today are not mutually exclusive. Sanders has remained focused for decades on a larger message while also working to deliver for his constituents in Burlington and across Vermont. For veterans. On jobs and health care. Pragmatically working with colleagues of all political stripes, day after day, while speaking out boldly and consistently about a larger vision.

Without question, our system of billionaire-and-corporate-money-financed elections is broken. It blocks progress. From changing our campaign-finance system to enacting universal, automatic voter registration, there are essential changes we need to implement if government policy is to align with the priorities of a majority of voters (and nonvoters). Suffice it to say that it’s not just who we elect, but how we elect them that sets the agenda.

Remarkably, small-dollar donations have adequately financed Sanders’ national campaign to take on those who would have things stay pretty much the same. In response, Hillary Clinton has started telling voters that Sanders’ broadly popular proposals can’t be enacted “in the real world.”

Really? Whatever her virtues as a candidate and potential president, Clinton is dead wrong. Public financing of campaigns, tuition-free higher education, and various flavors of single-payer healthcare that save money and improve health outcomes and redirect economic resources into jobs and higher wages actually do exist. All around the (real) world, in fact.

In 1987, I took a year off from college to organize students across New England on the New Hampshire primary campaign of Sen. Paul Simon, the Illinois Democrat who ran for president with similarly bold ideas. Notably, he championed a large public-works jobs program that he detailed in a book-length proposal, “Let’s Put America Back to Work.” It was the type of program that, if enacted into law in 2009, could have addressed what instead became years of unemployment, underemployment, and economic hardship for millions.

Simon was very much like Sanders: A dedicated, decent, forward-looking, and surely imperfect candidate who spent a lifetime in public service. (He was also a prolific columnist and writer, which earned high marks in my book.) He was the oldest candidate in the race, yet the most popular with young people. Like Sanders today.

Paul Simon’s campaign slogan? “It’s time to believe again,” echoed in Sanders’ “A future to believe in.” Yes, just political slogans, and we need more than slogans, and more than politics, to address today’s challenges. But it’s a far better message than telling those who struggle to “get real” and just accept more of the same. Frankly, that’s just cynicism in service of political ambition.

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Bill Shein is unlikely to be Donald Trump’s running mate.

(This column appeared originally in The Berkshire Record newspaper on Thursday, January 28.)