Progressives have good reason to be happy this election season — with the vitriol and bombastic Donald Trump as their opponent and new polls that suggest 61% of young voters prefer a Democrat in the White House, the party has had plenty of reason to celebrate and a lot of flexibility in their aim to bring the country forward. With the influence of Bernie Sanders, the Democrats have come out with one of the most progressive platforms in the party’s history — supporting a $15 minimum wage, Wall Street reform, and Social Security expansion. Democratic Socialism, popular in the FDR, Eisenhower, and Lyndon Johnson administrations, seemed to make a resurrection this year in light of the Sanders primary race.
As much as I admired Bernie Sanders, despite my reservations on his ability to compromise in Washington and the feasibility of his single-payer system, the democratic socialist proposals Sanders has proposed have gotten some mixed critiques from political opponents.
Most critiques of Sanders I saw looked similar to this:
It’s always interesting to see the tacit assumptions behind these types of statements:
- Liberals are unemployed and lazy
- Liberals are young and naive
- Liberals only like politicians because he gives away free stuff
- Liberals want to uproot the benefits of capitalism
As a young person who likes policies espouse by Clinton and, to an extent, Sanders, I might seem like an anomaly according to the frame of reference used by his critics. I didn’t go through college for free, I am happily employed, and given my most recent tax situation, I would hardly qualify for any of the “free” things that liberals propose. My admiration for a Democratic candidate comes out of their vision of a new America free of corporate corruption, injustice and rising poverty levels.
So maybe you’re not talking about me. Maybe you’re talking about the thousands of youth that are drowning in student loans or the millions living on welfare in this country. Maybe they are the “lazy” and “entitled” people that don’t deserve your dollar.
Back in the Fall of 2012, I was a volunteer for four months at a non-profit called LIFT, my first exposure to social services. I worked with hundreds of individuals in one-on-one session: Many were unemployed, looking to apply for government benefits, and looking for simple physiological needs such as food and shelter. Some were falling under the duress of their loans, some had become victim to foreclosure, and some were simply looking to create a future that don’t involve living every paycheck to paycheck.
The last word I would have used to describe any of these people: lazy.
Applying for unemployment benefits in this country is a complicated process but essentially precipitated on the fact that your unemployment is due to a circumstance out of your control. If you decide to quit your job tomorrow, sit on your couch and watch Netflix, you cannot simply collect federal or state unemployment benefits. If you decide tomorrow to sleep instead of looking for work, you cannot simply get a forbearance on your loans.
If you suddenly get struck with an illness or surgery that leaves you incapacitated for three months, you may be qualified for unemployment benefits.
Furthermore, many of the food stamp recipients in this country are children. More than 82% of all food stamp money goes to households that include children, elderly people, or people with disabilities. The same people considered “lazy” or “entitled” by some conservative pundits are the ones that cannot work due to the structure of a system that cannot hire them.
In addition, there is an expiration on loan deferments and unemployment benefits — if you stay on unemployment benefits for more than 26 weeks, you may be cut off the government safety net. So no, people on unemployment benefits aren’t sitting back and content. They are scared out of their mind.
Many of the people I worked with at LIFT did not have a college education and had trouble even getting a minimum-wage job. They could not afford to be lazy. They could not afford to sit on their coach for a weekend and take a break from the job search. For the ones who could get a job, one was not enough. Many worked two or three jobs. One of the most optimistic individuals I met got a job handing out newspapers at a Washington DC metro in the freezing cold — I admired the hell out of his grit. Most people on welfare? They are hardworking, taxpaying citizens, just like the rest of us.
So where do people like Clinton and Sanders come from? For all the “free stuff” that critics claims Democrats want to give, the pulpit of social democracies are simple — debt-free public education and subsidized healthcare. Guess what happens when people have access to healthcare? They can work. Guess what happens when people have access to validating degrees and academic cognizance? They can work.
There is nothing exciting about being on any sort of government welfare. For all the people I worked with at LIFT, I saw paranoia and apprehension. I saw people in circumstances they didn’t want with barriers they could not predict. I saw people busting their butt, coming into the office almost three days a week, and taking meticulous notes making sure they knew every option available to them.
I did not see lazy people. I did not see moochers.
I saw people who were simply able to breathe for another week because of government benefits.
Until you’re in this position, I understand that it’s impossible to empathize. Until you get destroyed by a debilitating sickness that suddenly makes it impossible for you to work, I understand that it’s simply easy to write off beneficiaries as lazy or deceitful. Until you have rational arguments to destroy Bernie Sanders and the need for social welfare, I understand it’s easier to just paint his beneficiaries as stupid and gullible.
Americans want to make a living and create their own safety nets —we need to come together and stop criticizing those who need ladders more than walls.
