Por Brasil de Fato
The candidate is gaining momentum with progressive agendas and direct attacks on Donald Trump’s far-right policies.
Senator Bernie Sanders confirmed his candidacy for the presidency of the United States on Tuesday (19), calling on the population to participate in an “unprecedented grassroots campaign” in the country’s 2020 election. In the video in which he made the announcement, the Democrat said it will be necessary to gather a million volunteers in all states to face “the great economic powers” that inject millions of dollars in campaigns to defend their interests. To get to the general election, Sanders must first go through the Democratic Party primaries.
Sanders is one of the main representatives of the US left and a critic of the country’s current president, Donald Trump. In the video published today, the senator classifies the Republican president as “a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a chauvinist, a xenophobe, a person who is shaking American democracy and leading us in an authoritarian direction,” in addition of being “the most dangerous president in modern American history”.
Trump has attacked Sanders on several occasions, calling him “crazy”.
Agenda
In announcing the launch of his candidacy, Sanders states that, in addition to defeating Trump, his proposal is to “transform the United States” and “create a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.
The current senator for the state of Vermont also speaks of confronting “the interests that dominate U.S. political and economic life”. “I’m talking about Wall Street, health insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the private prison industry, and the big multinationals”.
Sanders’ main banners include public policies for education, health, the environment and economics. The Democratic Socialist also talks about tackling racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance and all forms of discrimination, as well as proposing a tax reform to make the rich pay more taxes.
“We are the richest nation in the history of the world. We should not have this grotesque level of wealth inequality, where three billionaires hold more wealth than the poorest half of the country,” he said at the launch of his candidacy on Tuesday.
“We should not have 30 million Americans without health insurance, even more with insufficient insurance, and a nation with declining life expectancy. We should not have an economy in which tens of millions of workers receive ‘starvation wages’ and half of all older workers have no savings to retire. We should not have the highest rate of child poverty among the world’s most important countries. We should not have a regressive tax system in which large, profitable companies like Amazon do not pay federal income tax.
In foreign policy, Sanders says he intends to focus on “democracy, human rights, diplomacy and World peace” fighting climate change, militarism, authoritarianism and income inequality in the world.
In his political career, Sanders opposed the Vietnam War, organized a delegation to visit the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, was present in the possession of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and visited Cuba. Last year, he proposed a law to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen.
Presidential race
This will be Sanders’ second presidential race, who identifies himself as a Democratic Socialist. In 2016, he came second in the Democratic primaries behind Hillary Clinton, at the time with a “protest candidacy” seen as “radical” and “extreme,” as he says in the video published today.
Since then, it has gained more and more popularity, helping to break the taboo that existed in the country of criticizing neoliberalism and capitalism. The senator defends progressive agendas such as the construction of affordable housing, the promotion of equal pay for men and women, the increase of the minimum wage, the guarantee of a public and free higher education, the reform of criminal justice, the end of the “war on drugs”, the generation of jobs in the renewable and efficient energy sector, the implementation of “Medicare for all”, more inclusive policies for immigrants and greater control of possession and possession of weapons.
The political landscape for the next U.S. election will be different from the one faced by Sanders in 2016. This time, there are more progressive candidates, younger than the 77-year-old senator, but none with the electoral base he has already established.
The senator did not give details about where the campaign will begin or names that should be included in his team.
