Here's why one student isn't feeling the Bern

[Cali_Democrat]

By Stefan Specian

<...>

Yet despite this, I, as a liberal-leaning college student and former Democratic Party fellow, cannot bring myself to support him. The simple fact is that while Bernie hypes up his Wall Street message, he falls flat on a number of other, equally serious issues that have largely been ignored by his supporters.

Take for example his stance on gun control: While other candidates pledge their support for stronger (constitutionally legal) gun control measures, Mr. Sanders' record is mixed at best. In fact the only pro-gun control measure he has ever voted "yea" on was a high capacity magazine bill in 2013. Otherwise he has voted to shield gun stores and manufacturers from litigation, and he voted against the Brady Bill in 1994.

In the recent Democratic presidential debate, he defended these votes with platitudes regarding hunting and the rural-urban divide, despite the fact that the majority of gun control measures would have zero effect on the legal purchase and use of guns for hunting purposes. He was attacked on this in the debate by former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who, given his experience with the gun problem when he was Baltimore mayor, was right to criticize Mr. Sanders' erasure of the urban gun crisis.

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Lastly, we have Mr. Sanders' stance on immigration reform. Bernie, with his staunchly pro-labor stance, has voted over the years in a manner that his been against comprehensive immigration reform. In 1998 he voted against increasing skilled labor visas. In 2006 he voted to not inform the government of Mexico as to the whereabouts of the Minuteman project, a group of non-governmental, citizen border patrol guards. And in 2007 he voted against a comprehensive immigration plan and work visas.

These votes have not only earned him bad standing among pro-immigration reform groups, but they have also earned him high ratings from conservative groups that support stronger borders and stronger limitations on immigration.

Read more:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-sanders-20151026-story.html

[Persondem]

1. Nice fact filled post. Thank you. K & R nt

[mmonk]

2. OK. Students can pay their pay masters for their education.

Problem solved.

[Vinca]

3. Thanks - I didn't know about the vote against skilled labor visas.

Companies should be hiring skilled Americans at a fair wage rather than bringing in outside help to work for peanuts. That's what has happened. It's not that anyone dislikes immigrants. It's that they shouldn't be brought in to hire in lieu of American workers because they'll work for a whole lot less.

[quickesst]

4. I remember....

....the early 2000's passing the twenty year mark working in the exciting world of construction, and voicing those same concerns. I do find it ironic that it is now acceptable to complain about foreigners taking American's jobs, and for low wages. The evolution seems as clear as blue and white.

[sadoldgirl]

5. I just love this idiocy about the gun issue.

Should HRC get the nomination and keep up her
fight for gun control, she will L O S E !

People in big cities might give her their support,
but this country has more than just cities, and rural
people think quite differently about that issue.
That is a point, which Bernie understands better.
I live in a purple state, and there is a tremendous
support for guns here.

If HRC just makes this a big issue during the
primaries, and changes her position on this item
as well as she has on others, the NRA (very
popular in the West) will remind the voters of
her present stance.

I for one have such a trust issue with her, that
I believe she will turn on this issue as well.

[Doctor_J]

6. so this student is willing to graduate 125,000 in debt, pay a half million or so in

healthcare costs over his lifetime, live with fracking chemicals in his water, let wall street wreck the economy again, and spend thousands of lives and billions of dollars on continued war, all because Bernie has a D- rating from the nra?

Someone should tell Stefan about Hillary's 2008 primary campaign in favor of guns. He seems to desperately need a clue.

[mhatrw]

7. But Hillary will grab more guns and drive American wages lower with more foreign worker visas!

What more could a student want?

[Live and Learn]

8. And Hillary voted for the war that killed hundreds of thousands and

destabilized the entire Middle East. And Bill signed NAFTA in to law (despite Hillary's telling him not to I am sure ), costing us hundreds of thousands of jobs.

So, Bernie is in favor granting a path to citizenship as a human rights issue but against unfair trade and labor visas that put Americans out of work. Shame on him!