Bernie Sanders has spent almost 40
years serving in elected office. Sanders served as mayor of Burlington,
Vermont, before being elected to the U.S House and Senate.
During those four decades, Sanders has
displayed an incredible consistency. He has fought for his beliefs, even when
doing so was unpopular.
The Democratic Socialist from Vermont
had the dedication and courage to fight for peace and LGBT rights at times when
public opinion made it difficult for politicians to do so.
There are many wonderful candidates
running for the Democratic nomination. The Kansas Democratic Party is allowing voters
to use ranked choice voting in its presidential primary.
I will continue to follow the primary and
remain open to new information, but Bernie Sanders will almost certainly be my first choice for president.
Voters should consider choosing a
fighter who stands by his beliefs and does the right thing, when other politicians
are often blown astray by political winds.
Opponent of the Iraq War
In Oct. 2002, Bernie Sanders, then a
member of the U.S. House, voted against the invasion of Iraq. Former Vice
President Joe Biden, one of Sanders’s rivals for the Democratic presidential
nomination, voted in favor of going to war.
The U.S. House voted in favor of
authorizing the military invasion by a vote of 296 to 133. The U.S. Senate
voted for the war 77 to 23.
Sanders explained his position during
a speech in Congress one day before the vote.
“I don’t think any member of this body
disagrees that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant, a murderer, and a man who has
started two wars. He is clearly someone who cannot be trusted or believed,”
Sanders began. “The question, Mr. Speaker, is not whether we like Saddam
Hussein or not, the question is whether he represents an imminent threat to the
American people and whether a unilateral American invasion of Iraq will do more
harm than good.”
Sanders predicted the great harms the
war would ultimately create for both Iraq and the United States.
“I have not heard any estimates of how
many young American men and women might die in such a war, or how many tens of
thousands of women and children in Iraq might also be killed,” Sanders said. “As
a caring nation, we should do everything we can to prevent the horrible
suffering that a war will cause. War must be the last recourse in international
relations, not the first.”
Sanders also expressed his concern
that the war could be, “extremely expensive,” at a time when the country had a
national debt of $6 Trillion. (That now seems quaint by comparison. Our current
national debt is $23 Trillion).
Sanders also worried about unintended
consequences.
“Who will govern Iraq when Saddam
Hussein is removed, and what role will the U.S. play in an ensuing civil war
that could develop in that country?” Sanders asked.
The 2003 U.S. invasion led to a civil
war in Iraq that killed at least tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Thousands
of American soldiers died fighting in the war, which created conditions that
ultimately led to the rise of ISIS.
The Iraq War was the single worst
disaster in modern American political history. The Bush Administration and a
majority of both houses of Congress were wrong. Bernie Sanders, and a minority
of his colleagues, were right.
Advocate for diplomacy and peace
In September 2015, Senator Bernie
Sanders spoke eloquently in support of the Iran nuclear deal. Much of his
speech echoed his fateful comments on the Iraq War 13 years earlier.
“It is my firm belief that the test of
a great nation, with the most powerful military on earth, is not how many wars
we can engage in, but how we can use our strengths and our capabilities to
resolve international conflicts in a peaceful way,” Sanders said.
As Sanders advocated for a diplomatic approach to Iran, he explained the devastating cost of the Iraq War for the young men and women America sent to fight it.
“I fear that many of my Republican
colleagues do not understand that war must be a last resort, not the first
resort,” he said. “It is easy to go to war. It is not so easy to fully
comprehend the unintended consequences of that war.”
“In Iraq and Afghanistan, we lost over
6,700 brave men and women, and many others have come home without legs, without
arms, without eyesight,” Sanders continued.
“Let us not forget that 500,000
veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan came back to their families with
post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.”
“The suicide rate of young veterans is
appallingly high. The divorce rate of those who serve is appallingly high, and
the impact on their children is appallingly high. God knows how many families
have been devastated by these wars.”
Sanders also highlighted the devastation
the war brought to Iraq.
“We should also not forget that many
hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children died in that
war, and those whose lives who have been have been completely destabilized,” he
said. “Hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been totally altered,
including those who are fleeing that country today with only the clothes on
their back as refugees.”
LGBT Ally
As
a Congressman in the U.S. House, Bernie Sanders defended the dignity and rights
of gay Americans in the 1990s, when few other politicians were willing to do
so.
In 1995, Rep. Duke Cunningham, a Republican from California, spoke derisively about members of Congress who would, “put homos in the military.”
Sanders
defended the dignity of gay Americans who have served their country in the
armed forces.
“Was
the gentleman referring to the many thousands and thousands of gay people who
have put their lives on the line in countless wars defending this country? Was
that the group of people that the gentleman was referring to?” Sanders asked.
Cunningham
acknowledged he had used the phrase. Sanders admonished his colleague for attacking
gay Americans who have defended their country.
“You used the
word, ‘homos in the military.’ You have insulted thousands of men and women who
have put their lives on the line. I think you owe them an apology,” Sanders
added.
Today, Sanders supports overturning
President Trump’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military. He also
supports the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual
orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, and public
accommodations.
A Profile in Courage
In 1996, Sanders was one of the few
members of Congress to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which
denied equal rights to same-sex couples.
DOMA denied recognition under federal
law to same-sex marriages, which prevented members of same-sex couples from receiving Social
Security survivor benefits, insurance benefits, immigration rights, and from being
able to jointly file their taxes.
The law also allowed states that
banned same-sex marriage to withhold legal recognition of same-sex marriages
performed in states that permitted such marriages.
The U.S. House voted in favor of DOMA
342 to 67, with Sanders opposed.
The U.S. Senate subsequently approved
the bill 85 to 14. Delaware Senator Joe Biden voted in favor of DOMA.
Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne
Feinstein, both of California, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, both of
Massachusetts, Ron Wyden, of Oregon, and
Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin, voted against the bill.
President Bill Clinton signed DOMA
into law.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the
part of the law that denied federal benefits to same-sex couples in 2013 in
Windsor v. United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the
part of the law that allowed states to withhold recognition of same sex
marriages carried out in other states in June 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges,
which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Bernie Sanders addressed the
significance of his vote against DOMA as he campaigned in Oct. 2015 for the
Democratic Presidential nomination in the 2016 election.
“In 1996, I faced another fork in the
road, a very very difficult political situation. It was called the Defense of
Marriage Act, DOMA, brought forth by a Republican-led Congress,” he said. “And
its purpose was clear — to discriminate against gays and lesbians into the law,
and let us all remember that gay and lesbian rights were not popular then as
they are today.”
“There was a small minority in the house opposed to discriminating against our gay brothers and sisters, and I am proud that I was one of those members,” Sanders added.
“There was a small minority in the house opposed to discriminating against our gay brothers and sisters, and I am proud that I was one of those members,” Sanders added.
Bernie Sanders has displayed a
remarkable consistency throughout his political career.
If you were to talk to Sanders at any
point in his life, his core values of opposing war, advocating for equality,
and fighting for working Americans would shine through.
If you agree that these are values
worth fighting for, you could ask for no better champion in the White House
than Bernie Sanders.
