Why I Support Bernie Sanders for President of the United States

By Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page

30 October 19

here comes a time when you have to say you can no longer wait for the America that has been promised to you since you were a child. That you will no longer be told to be patient, or that you should wait just a little longer until the stubborn change their ways. There comes a time when you are no longer interested in seeking a “middle ground” on issues like health care or climate change — as if there even is a middle ground on whether to save the planet or to save yourself from a health care system that makes you go only half bankrupt — and so finally you just have to say “ENOUGH!” The days of compromise are OVER. We must stop being afraid to demand what we need right now. We need to stop running to the middle where we think it’s “safe” (when even a 10-year knows it’s never safe to stand in the middle of the road). Friends! Stop wringing your hands with such fear! I know it’s been a rough three years, but the only way to beat Trump (if in fact there still is a Trump next year) is for all of us to be bold and brave and brazen in these next 12 months. The time has come when your only job in this dark and dangerous moment is to be your true self, to vote your conscience, to vote for YOUR vision of the country you want to live in — because you may never get this chance again. Our side blew it in 2016 — we can’t afford to let that happen again. 

We are blessed in this election year with an incredible field of Democratic candidates who can lead us out of the madness and into a better world. All of the polls now show the top five or six Democrats can and will beat Donald Trump in a head-to-head race — and if that’s the case, then you can and should vote for the candidate who most closely resembles your beliefs and not play some unnecessary game of Stratego. Kamala can win! Buttigieg can win! Biden can win! Warren can win! Bernie can win! So if that’s the case, and we agree that we’re ALL voting in the general election next November for whoever the Democratic nominee is, then please, use the primary election/caucus in your state to vote for that one candidate who most speaks to you — and I’ll vote for the one who most speaks to me. Let’s each, finally, stop compromising for someone we don’t really want and, instead, vote for the one you love. 

I love Bernie Sanders. And in my primary, that is whom I’m enthusiastically voting for as my choice for President of the United States.

Here is why I’m for Bernie:

1. Only Bernie completely understands and clearly states what is the singular reason causing so many of our social ills: A cruel economic system, which is, at its very core, brutally unfair, profoundly unjust and not at all democratic. There is no democracy when it comes to our economic system — you and I simply have no say in how this economy is run. Until we end the greed that allows just 3 men to own more wealth than 160 million Americans COMBINED, then we will be spinning our wheels forever and dooming millions of our fellow citizens to permanent poverty, woefully inadequate health care, crushing student debt and a life of struggling to live from paycheck to paycheck — the middle class an elusive dream that exists only in the distance of your rearview mirror. 

Bernie knows it doesn’t have to be this way. He knows that this is no longer about a debate between “capitalism” and “socialism.” In fact, let’s be honest: capitalism is no longer “capitalism.“ It has become a modern-day feudal system where a few billionaires buy and own the politicians and the government so they can rule over and profit from the 330 million of us. Bernie proposes a different way: a modern-day true Democracy — he calls it democratic socialism — which means we must have both political AND economic democracy. A democracy wherein the people control the economy and decide how the money should be spent. It’s a belief system that says everyone gets a seat at the table, everyone shares and gets a slice of the pie. Yes, of course I know Oprah and Anderson Cooper will get a larger slice of pie — but NOT at the expense of the 60 million who get no slice at all. In Bernie’s democracy, no one is left behind. “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” That’s what Bernie believes in. Whenever you hear the words “Democratic socialism” it’s just a clunky way of saying Social Security. Or Medicare. Or the GI Bill. The public library (books you can read for free!). Public schools. The animal shelter. The mailwoman. The garbage man. Services your government provides for you at little or no charge and where profit is not the motive. Those in the top 0.1% who want the pie all to themselves — well, trust me, they are dreading the day the words “President Sanders” will be spoken. 

2. Bernie will never sell out. He simply can’t be bought. That gruff exterior of his? That’s his armor to let the enemy know he is in the thick of the battle, that he will stand firm and stop them from stealing our future. That’s why young voters are behind Bernie — he’s the brave, wise elder who’s fighting NOT for himself but for them — and you. He’s had 78 years to cash in, to get the big yacht and the gold-plated mansion, and yet he’s never broken faith with his conscience or the people. And everybody knows he’s not about to start now. Can’t we please have the occupant of the Oval Office in there doing OUR bidding and not that of the corporate elites? 

3. Here’s what I can promise you Bernie will do as President:

• With a Democratic Congress which he will embolden as Franklin Roosevelt once did, Bernie will sign legislation that gets us the same health care every other industrialized nation has — where everyone lives longer lives than Americans do and no one loses their home due to medical bills which will no longer exist!


• Bernie will get the minimum wage raised to at least $15 an hour (or more) and lift millions out of poverty. A good job with a decent middle class income (with a strong safety net for the old, the young and the challenged) is the goal in an economic democracy you and I run.


• Bernie will begin an all-out battle to protect this planet and save its species from extinction.


• Bernie will see to it that women are paid the same as men and that no man or legislature or court will have any say over a woman’s reproductive rights.


• Bernie will fight racism in every sick corner in which it exists. He will lead a more diverse United States which thrives because of our multitude of cultures — an America which welcomes immigrants, shares its wealth, makes amends for its sins, seeks peace instead of war, and guarantees no African-American is shot for being black./li>

4. For over 50 years Bernie has fought for all these things — all of which were vigorously opposed at one time or another by the majority of the American people. But over time, Americans were convinced by activists like Bernie to see things a different way — and now they finally do. That’s what a leader does — she or he is able to convince the masses to try a different, better path. Decades ago they said Bernie was crazy to believe women should be paid the same as men, that anyone should be able to marry the person they’re in love with, that those who destroy the environment should be stopped and brought to justice, that the rich aren’t being taxed enough, that unions are a good thing and on and on and on. These are now, according to nearly every poll, the positions that a MAJORITY of Americans take! And they are now the positions which all of the Democratic presidential candidates take! Bernie is the OG! He and others led us here. And now we get the chance to have him lead this country further down the road to more compassion, decency and love. 

Get behind the candidate who ignites some passion in you. If you so decide, please join me in supporting Bernie. Bernie will crush Trump (should Trump make it to the ballot). And when Bernie enters the Oval Office, on that day in January of 2021, we the people will all enter the Oval Office with him. 

— Michael Moore