Community Magazine August 2019

ALOOKATTHETOPDEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIALCANDIDATES DAVE GORDON T wenty-four politicians are vying for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2020. Candidates are busy making campaign stops around the nation, participating in televised debates, and are already preparing for primaries, which will take place in the late Fall. Community Magazine presents a summary of the top five candidates’ platforms as of press time, outlining their general stance on immigration, the economy, foreign policy, and Israel. JOE BIDEN Former Vice President Joe Biden served under President Barack Obama. Previously, he represented Delaware in the Senate from1973 until 2009. While in the Senate, Biden served on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Chair from 1987-1995), as chair for the International Narcotics Control Caucus (2007-2009), and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Chair from 2001-2003 and 2007-2009). Immigration: Biden has proposed making Dreamers or DACA recipients citizens. He has also been vocal about his support for helping Central American countries so that their citizens can and will stay in their home countries rather than fleeing to the United States. He opposes the wall as a slogan “divorced from reality” criticizing both its cost and ineffectiveness. The Economy: Biden supports free trade deals, though he argues that the United States has to negotiate good deals so as not to be taken advantage of. He has focused mostly on the middle class, arguing that they are a barometer of how everyone else is doing. He supports a $15/hr. minimum wage. He is critical of the wealth inequality in America, highlighting how the rich have gotten richer while wages have not grown significantly for the middle class and below. Foreign Policy: Biden is achampionof global alliances and free trade. His recordon foreign policy is somewhat inconsistent, supporting interventionism at times and rejecting it elsewhere. Israel: Biden has always said that he is “pro-Israel.” In 2009 he spoke at the AIPAC convention, saying that Israel must “dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement.” In April 2016 he spoke at the left-leaning J Street gala, rebuking Israel on settlement expansion, and that same month when a bomb injured 21 people on a bus in Jerusalem, he said that it was Israeli policies that had done the real damage to the peace process. Biden stood by the Obama-era Iran deal, and voted against the Bush administration’s move to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard as a terror group. BERNIE SANDERS Bernie Sanders has served as a senator from Vermont since 2007. While in the Senate, he served as the Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee from 2013-2015 and is a current ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. Originally from Brooklyn, Sanders became interested in politics early on where he joined the Young People’s Socialist League at University of Chicago (affiliated with the Socialist Party of America). For a time, he represented the Liberty Union Party in various elections for both governor and U.S. Senate. Eventually, in 1980 he ran for Mayor of Burlington, Vermont and won. During his time as mayor, Sanders referred to himself as a socialist and often criticized U.S. foreign policy, especially in regard to the Cold War and Latin American policy. Immigration: Unlike the most progressive candidates for the nomination, Sanders has a protectionist view: “If you open the borders, my Gd, there’s a lot of poverty in this world, and you’re going to have people from all over the world. I don’t think that’s something we can do at this point.” He has previously stated that mass immigration from poorer countries is what the corporations desire in order to be provided with cheap labor. This, he said, harms the American worker. He has called for immigration reform and his campaign site suggests he would expand DACA and would include a path to citizenship for all Dreamers. He would restrict the scope of ICE, end family separation, and establish independent oversight within agencies including DHS. The Economy: Although he calls himself a socialist, Sanders has often promoted economic ideas that are more like those of liberal capitalist countries of Western Europe. His tax proposal endeavors to close loopholes for the top earners in the country, and he would increase taxes across the board to pay for a battery of new government run services, such as universal healthcare, free public education, and housing reform. Sanders also wants to use the government to break up corporations, and what he considers monopolies, believing the economy is working for the wealthy, but should work “for the people.” 42 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE