I Believe in Bernie - 2016

Inspired by the "Who Needs Feminism" campaign, I Believe in Bernie encourages those who support the Senator from Vermont in his bid for presidency to share what they love about him in written form. Please use the "Submit your Photo" link to share an image of you holding a sign (or just the sign if you want!) that states your reason for supporting Mr. Sanders. Please also hashtag your state on the sign.

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Columbia representing!

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#ibelieveinbernie #feelthebern Bernie has our back. Let's get his!

[theliberaltony]

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Vermont Progressives representing!

[millennial-review-deactivated20]

There have been a lot of angry messages about a recent post. Your messages have been read, here is our response.

Earlier in the week our blog ran this post taking a mild shot at Hillary Clinton. A surprising number of people reached out because they felt the post was not understanding enough and did not account for a possible change of heart. People can definitely change opinion, but I would argue Hillary Clinton never did. Hillary Clinton is a career politician and really good at what she does. Despite Bill Clinton being a fairly conservative Democrat, both economically and socially people seem surprised that he passed a lot of the anti LGBT legislation that came out of the 1990s. Many claim that the Clinton Administration’s signing of legislation such as the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is indicative of Hillary Clinton’s opposition to marriage equality. That is just Bill Clinton making political choices which Hillary decided to later make her own. Bill Clinton was operating under a Republican Congress and the press was all over him for everything, not unlike the Obama administration today. Just a few years later they would move to impeach him over the whole Monica Lewinsky debacle. Needless to say, it wasn’t really an environment where Bill Clinton had a lot of room to negotiate. On top of that Bill Clinton ran on making the economy stronger and poured his political resources in to passing legislation which he claimed boosted the economy, such as NAFTA. Although NAFTA has had dubious results and is just one of many trade deals Bernie Sanders has opposed over the years, at the time Bill Clinton heralded it as a political victory. Point being, Bill Clinton had political aims and so did the Republican congress. It wasn’t worth the political cost to oppose gay marriage on a philosophical level. Mostly because Bill Clinton never relied on a religious base which opposed gay marriage. On top of that he was operating in a political climate that didn’t care much about LGBT rights. Obviously the politics behind NAFTA, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and DOMA are incredibly complex, but the point being it is just a sad fact of America in the 1990s, wasn’t worth it politically for Bill Clinton or anybody relying on the two party system to push for LGBT rights. Bill Clinton wasn’t alone, nearly every single politician opposed gay marriage or equality under law for the LGBT community in the 1990′s. Hillary Clinton certainly did, but I would argue simply as a political gesture. Her speech in 2004 and later speeches campaigning against Barack Obama in 2008 opposing marriage equality did not come from some deep seated respect for the “religious institution of traditional marriage”. It came from the sad fact that at that time, it was politically damaging to support LGBT rights in the United States. Bernie Sanders did it anyway. Hillary Clinton had the pulpit to stand up and fight for what was right, but instead let it become a fringe talking point she could brush off and politely say she thought marriage was between a man and a woman. Once again, in my view, Hillary Clinton never truly opposed gay marriage for any ideological reason or otherwise. She was simply politically savvy enough to see the deep seated ignorance in large swaths of the voting population at the time. Bernie Sanders fought for equality when it was politically damaging to do so. Hillary Clinton fostered more inequality for political points. Not to attack Hillary, in my view that’s just the reality of the situation. She was not alone, but that is why Bernie Sanders deserves so much credit for doing what he did. He stood up and fought for equality when very few politicians were willing to do so. He opposed DOMA, he tried to legalize gay marriage in the 90′s, he has always been a supporter of marriage equality. More importantly, he has never played politics with the rights of other people. That’s why we need Bernie Sanders, he knows what politics is actually about. It’s about people and making their lives better.

[womenforjustice-ourrevolution]

[ibelieveinbernie]

So...10,000 people, in this ONE city alone, believe in Bernie :)

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Yes! This one is absolutely perfect! He’s been fighting for equality for over 40 years. He’s also the only one running that is advocating for public financing of all elections!

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Here is a college student at The University of Memphis, who attended our #MemphisForBernie meetup. Things went really well. #TNforBernie #Sanders2016 #BernieSanders