In an amazing speech, Sen. Bernie Sanders went to
Liberty 'University' and gave the lunatic fringe religio-wingnut evangelicals a dose
of progressive faith, and tore apart the hypocrisy of supposedly
faith-based Republicans defending immoral economic policies.
Sanders explained why he agreed to speak at Liberty,
“I came here today because I believe that it is important for those
with different views in our country to engage in civil discourse – not
just to shout at each other or make fun of each other. It is very easy
for those in politics to talk to those who agree with us. I do that
every day. It is harder, but not less important, to try to communicate
with those who do not agree with us and see where, if possible, we can
find common ground and, in other words, to reach out of our zone of
comfort.”
Later Senator Sanders turned the Republican support of inequality on its moral ear:
Let me be very frank. I understand that issues such
as abortion and gay marriage are very important to you and that we
disagree on those issues. I get that. But let me respectfully suggest
that there are other issues out there that are of enormous consequence
to our country and the world and that maybe, just maybe, we don’t
disagree on them. And maybe, just maybe, we can work together in trying
to resolve them.
It would, I think, be hard for anyone in this room
to make the case that the United States today is a just society or
anything close to a just society. In America today, there is massive
injustice in terms of income and wealth inequality. Injustice is
rampant.
There is no justice when the top one-tenth of 1
percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. There is no
justice when all over this country people are working longer hours for
lower wages, while 58 percent of all new income goes to the top 1
percent.
There is no justice when, in recent years,
we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires while, at
the same time, the United States has the highest rate of childhood
poverty in the industrialized world. Twenty percent of all children –
and 40 percent of African-American children – now live in poverty.
There is no justice when, in a rigged economy, the
15 wealthiest people in this country in the last two years saw their
wealth increase by $170 billion. That is more wealth, acquired in a
two-year period, than is owned by the bottom 130 million Americans.
There is no justice when low-income and
working-class mothers are forced to be separated from their new babies
one or two weeks after giving birth because they must go back to work to
sustain their family and because the United States is the only major
country on earth that does not provide paid family and medical leave.
There is no justice when thousands of
people in this country die each year because they don’t have health
insurance and don’t get to a doctor when they should.
Republicans don’t have an exclusive on morality,
justice, and faith. Senator Sanders called out the Republican hypocrites
who warp the bible to defend income inequality. Senator Sanders was
brilliant. He turned the Republicans’ moral argument in defense of the
billionaires against them.
Bernie Sanders made the inequality and poverty in
the United States a moral issue. His argument was compelling. He
discussed the immorality of the wingnuts’ economic policies. To
progressive christians, how some Republicans have warped religion to
defend policies that harm millions of Americans in need is a matter of
outrage.
Senator Sanders said that the poor and the wretched had
a right to go to a doctor when they are sick. Sanders said, “Money and
wealth should serve the people. The people should not serve money and
wealth.”
Sanders struck at the heart of a basic ideological
hypocrisy, and in the process found some common ground with the students
at Liberty 'University'.
