What policies if I might ask, I'm not very keen on this stuff but since I'm 18 I really need to educate myself.
For one, he wants to modify the tax brackets so that the wealthy (more specifically the top 1%) pay what he considers to be a fair amount. At the moment,
the wealthiest people in the country are paying just under 40% of their taxable income. Sanders wants to increase the top marginal income tax rate to help pay for some of the policies he wants to put in place, such as increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, making public colleges tuition free, guaranteeing healthcare to all citizens, requiring employers to provide at least 12 weeks of paid leave, etc. Of course all of that can't be done simply by increasing taxes on the rich, so he also wants to close many loopholes that exist in the tax system, put a speculation tax on Wall Street, spend less money on incarceration (by decriminalizing marijuana, for one), etc. This basically only covers what he wants to do with the economy, and I'm really on scratching the surface here. If you want to look into his stance on other issues,
this is the place to look.
1: Why is the environment and LGBT a concern right NOW? We have freaking (correct me if the following number is incorrect) 10,000 terrorists/refugees dumped into the US like 2 months ago, and we basically have a war on our hands against Isis and the terrorists that want to shoot our guts out because of what we believe. Isis is no laughing matter, they've killed plenty and aren't afraid to kill more of us to spread their lies and tyranny trying to convert everyone to follow Allah and shoot those who don't.
The environment is a huge concern now because if we don't do anything about it in the very,
very near future, we could have something exponentially more detrimental than ISIS or any terrorist group. Thanks to the
United Nations Climate Change Conference that just took place, all 195 countries unanimously agreed that they must reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This agreement is non-binding, so there would be no penalty if other countries don't keep to their word, but the fact that we took this first step is important regardless. If this had happened any later, it may have been too late. Places like my current state of Florida could be flooded (not to mention the countless islands that would cease to exist). Temperatures in the Middle East could rise to an unlivable standard. And heck, it
still might be too late. It may take a while to see the true consequences of our pollution, but we're already starting to see it take effect now to a certain degree (no pun intended).
On the topic of Syrian refugees, all refugees go through an
extremely rigorous screening process. The chance of terrorists getting through is very unlikely. With that said, I am not afraid of a terrorist making it to the country. I am more afraid of
Americans shooting up schools with their
legally acquired weapons. But I guess I'll get to that in a second with your next point.
Oh yeah and more gun control is being pushed by the democrats to get the weapons out of our hands. (remember that basketball pro's family that did an add on christmas?)
Why do they want to get guns out of our hands? Because they can't control us if we have weapons. Once a japanese military commander/general (I forget) was asked if they would ever to think to invade the US, his Responce was.... No, there is a gun hiding behind every tree. Also banning weapons only keeps the clean people from having them, Crooks and criminals will always get what they want no matter how hard it is (drugs anyone?).
I have not heard about that Christmas story, no. Your claim that the Democrats want to 'take away all of our guns' to me seems nothing short of paranoia. They have never said they wanted to ban all guns, but rather to
strengthen up background checks, ban military-style assault weapons, and improve mental health awareness. Basically, do what other countries without major shootings on a frequent basis have been doing for years now.
Getting back on topic... Do you really want 4 more years of Obama? What has he really done for our nation? We gave Isis the right to make nukes, and our people a failing (and all but forced) healthcare system.
He gave ISIS the right to make nukes? Are you talking about the Iran Nuclear Deal? I admit I am not well-educated on that topic, but again, I feel like you are being paranoid and jumping to conclusions. I also haven't done much research on Obamacare. From what I understand, it
is broken and in need of a major reform, but it does still help a handful of people who cannot receive healthcare benefits from their jobs. As far as I know, the Democratic candidates want to try and fix it, while the Republican candidates want to get rid of it entirely. Correct me if I'm wrong.
And second why would you want Bernie to bring our nation closer to Socialism? I just don't understand why. Wealth isn't just something that should (you can because free market and is should always be your choice but getting back to finishing the sentence..) be distributed equally just because those above you say so without that, there's no incentive to work hard: Just imagine how hard everyone would work if we all had to work together to make a CS mod and everyone grafted in would be forced to contribute toward it and someone who doesn't care about the individuality of our contributions toward it and has no desire to make it unnecessarily better than above par as long as it brings in enough to give him a good share of the wealth generated from it and keeps the group self sustained... barely.
Sanders is not a Communist, which to me sounds like what you are describing. He basically just wants the richer to pay more and to close the many tax loopholes they use to end up paying less than middle class workers. Have you ever heard of the
Buffett Rule?
"...[Warren Buffett] believed it was wrong that rich people, like himself, could pay less in federal taxes, as a portion of income, than the middle class..." Think too of Social Security, a Socialist type of program. It's one of the most important (albeit expensive) programs in American history. I am against Communism, and I do not think that Sanders would want to enact Communist policies (nor would he be able to because of Congress).
I realise that I'm talking about pure socialism at the moment; but the principal is the same, if 80% of what you make is taken away in taxes and given to the government to make their academies an sky scrapers look even taller, shinier, and cooler looking on top of sending everyone home with a fat paycheck of 6 figures a year, then that is tyranny. hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted every year; because nobody in office cares, because they walk away with the same paycheck every month; paradice to them is to keep their job by doing the minimum, and being able to go fishing with their buddies on the weekend; they have no care for the common people, at least most don't; and I find that very hateful; Government shouldn't be a full employment, it should be a hobby for the dedicated.
Do you distrust government that much? Then why would you want anyone in office to begin with? I disagree with government as a hobby. It's much too complex for it to only be someone's hobby. Our government (and politics in general) is much bigger than it was many centuries ago, and thus the job must evolve with it. And what makes you think those with government as a hobby would be less corrupt than those with it as a job? That seems like very flawed logic to me. Especially because it's society that votes these people in. If we didn't have such low voter turnouts (with only about
55% of people voting in the 2012 election. That's not even to speak of state and local elections) and if voters made more informed decisions (I once listened to a girl in my College class say that she only voted for this one person "because she was a girl"), then maybe we would have those changes that so many people complain that they want.
If you make more then the average money, you will be tracked down by the authorities in one way or another and they are going to try to take their fair share, no matter what party, race and possibly morals.
Well I mean yeah, that's kind of how taxes work. I don't think that the government collecting taxes is like a loan shark trying to get some guy to fork over the cash he owes (which, to me, is the way you're describing it), but taxes are a necessary evil. If we can get more money from the top 1% by patching up tax loopholes and increasing the top marginal income tax rate and then distributing that money back to the middle class, that sounds fair to me. And I can't see it stifling innovation unless the government starts taxing a huge percentage of their income (something like 90%, for example).
Hopefully I opened up your mind, even just a little bit. Also, I'd like to mirror what you said before about not trying to make you/anyone upset. Alsoalso, please feel free to try and refute or correct me on any of my claims.