Minutes before the start of the Bernie Sanders rally in Norfolk, Virginia, “Power to the People” by John Lennon played through the speakers of the city’s Scope Arena.
While the South Carolina Democratic primary is coming up on Saturday, Sanders is focusing his energy on Super Tuesday states like Virginia, which will hold their primary on Tuesday, March 1.
When the Vermont senator ascended the stage, he thanked his supporters and reminded them that his campaign is about a political revolution by and for the American people. Throughout his speech, he returned to the idea that individuals, not wealthy campaign contributors, super PACs, or party establishments, should hold the real power in politics and government.
“Real change never comes from the top down,” Sanders said, praising his grassroots campaign, which has an average individual contribution of just $27. “It comes from the bottom up.”
He reminisced on the individuals who fought for civil rights, women’s suffrage, and marriage equality, noting that throughout our country’s history, people, not money, have been the driving force of progress. He pointed to our current problems — college affordability, income inequality, industries moving overseas, our broken criminal justice system — and called on the young crowd to demand change.
The senator’s message was a good one: if we want to continue to make positive influences on our government, then power must be returned to the people. The problem is that a Sanders presidency would do just the opposite.
“He is right to shed light on real problems in the United States and is noble for wanting to fix them,” shared an undecided voter who attended the rally. “But the very problems he wants to fix were in large brought about by nearly unlimited government spending, over strenuous regulations on American businesses, and taxation policies put in place by Democratic administrations.”
“Much of what Sanders proposes will only inflame injustices,” agreed Ashley LaFramboise, Young Americans for Liberty member and 2012 Ron Paul campaign volunteer. “His ‘solutions’ would be earth-shatteringly destructive to our economy; with the top 1% being taxed at 90% (in his own words), what’s to say those businesses and organizations would not close shop, to move millions of jobs and billions of dollars to outside nations?”
In other words, Sanders failed to acknowledge that many of our problems are due to the mistakes of an overreaching, power-hungry federal government. Rather than denouncing big government, he consistently calls for making the government even bigger (and funding its growth by overtaxing successful Americans). Whether well-intended or not, a President Sanders would not give power back to the people; it would only give more power to the government.
