I am kind of proud to support Bernie Sanders. Granted, I’m only kind of proud because I’m having a hard time believing that there’s a politician out there that I can support, that I can vote for, as opposed to voting against the other guy. I’m a firm believer that a person has to be nuts to even want that office, and the last thing we need in that office is a nut. That said, Bernie Sanders is my kind of nut. I’m proud to support Bernie Sanders for two simple reasons: because I’m a Christian, and because I love this country. I’ll wait while some of you log off, or plan your outraged response.

There, that should be enough time. Please note that, although I claim to be a Christian, I make no claims to being a good one. Frankly, I suck at it. I’m certainly no theologian or Biblical Scholar, God hasn’t tapped me on the shoulder and told me anything personally. I don’t even know if God really even cares who wins the election. I do know this though; Jesus told us to feed his sheep. If we love him, we’re to feed his sheep. We’re to love God first, and second, we’re to love one another. We’re to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. We’re to care for the poor, the down-trodden, the sick. We’re not supposed to feed only those sheep who deserve it, we’re not to love only those who agree with us, or look like us, we’re not to do unto others before they do unto us. We’re not supposed to care for the poor, the down-trodden, and the sick once they’ve earned our help. We’re just supposed to do it.

I don’t remember anything in the Bible that says to shun the refugee, to persecute the immigrant. I’m pretty sure that it even says something in there about loving our enemies. I’m having a hard time finding the part about carpet-bombing potential or even current enemies back to the stone age. Perhaps I need to find the translation that all the Republican candidates seem to be using.

Now I know that Bernie Sanders is not a Christian, he’s not even a christian. As far as I can tell, from what he himself has said, he’s sort of a semi-Agnostic Jew. What I do know is that the things he stands for represents the Christian values that I try so hard to stick to far better than any other candidate I’ve ever heard from. Ever. In any election, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter. Now, even I don’t think that Carter was a good president, but I think he was a good man, which is more than I can say for anyone else (besides Bernie) running this year.

I’ve seen people posting things about what good Christian men Cruz, Rubio, and even Trump (Trump!) are, and I’ve seen Cruz and Rubio blathering on about their strong faith, but every time I do, I think about that bit in the bible that talks about not praying in public like the hypocrites do, about not making it a public spectacle, so I have my doubts. It strikes me as more about image and votes than devotion to God (also, I refer you to the bit above about the things Jesus told us to do). When I compare their feelings about God with their feelings about their fellow man, there seems to be a major disconnect. As far as Trump goes, he may be the only professing Christian on the planet with a shakier grasp on biblical matters than me (but at least I’m not using it to get a job).

To my thinking, Bernie Sanders seems to know Jesus far better than any of the rest.

As to my second reason for supporting Bernie, that I love this country: Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who seems to think the good ol’ USA can do anything other than huddle in fear. Fear of terrorists (they want to kill us!) fear of blacks and other minorities (they want our stuff! and they probably want to kill us too!), fear of gun control (they want our guns!), fear of immigrants (they want our jobs! and to kill us!), of the poor (they want our money!), of non-Christians (they want our religion!), gays (they want us!), fear of unions (they want to cripple industry!), frankly fear of everything.

Okay, so I’ll go along with everybody else on the terrorists (they do want to kill us, but to fear them is to give them power), but I believe that as far as the rest go, what the blacks and other minorities, immigrants, poor, non-Christians, gays, and unions want is what this country has always promised; a fair chance at the American dream. And honestly, if you think they’ve been given that already, then nothing I say here is going to change your mind, but I do have to ask, why are you still reading?

We’re even supposed to be afraid of our own employers; if we don’t let them do what they want, they’re going to pack up all the rest of the jobs and move them overseas! To me this sounds like capitulation to corporate extortion, and it makes me pretty stinkin’ angry.

Bernie Sanders wants to rebuild our infrastructure. Is there really anybody out there who doesn’t think this is a good idea? Our roads and bridges are falling apart. How is commerce supposed to happen without transportation, and how is transportation going to happen without roads, bridges, railroads, etc?

Bernie Sanders wants to make college possible for every American. Do you think that having a more educated population will hurt this country? I know people who are $50,000, $60,000, or more in debt to graduate from IU East. Single mothers, trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. I know that if I couldn’t have gone to school thanks to the GI Bill, I’d be looking at a pretty bleak and dismal future. I certainly wouldn’t have gone into debt, or at least not that much debt for it, and I know that my future is much brighter, with more possibilities than it would be without this education. Pro-lifer’s used to talk about all the unborn Hemingways, and Beethovens, and Einsteins and Curies who were being aborted. I’m not going to argue with that. I’m going to take that argument one step farther. What about all the budding Hemingways and Beethovens, and Einsteins, and Curies, who are born, but will spend their days working at Walmart, or McDonalds, or on an assembly line because they never had a chance to break out of poverty? To be trained? Our caring shouldn’t stop at birth.

Bernie Sanders wants universal health-care. You think that’s a bad thing? I have a brother who died as an infant because Dad couldn’t afford a doctor, and so he waited too long. That was almost 60 years ago. That, in this country, should not still be an issue. Yes, there will be problems, but it is do-able. It’s already being done. All over the world. By countries who don’t claim to be exceptional. If they can do it, we should be able to, and, I believe we should be able to do it better. I also think about this; yes people can receive care in any emergency room in the country, but that’s emergency care. How many of those emergency room visits could be avoided if people could get preventative care? What about all the communicable diseases that could be curbed by preventative care? I think it could drastically improve the lives of millions of Americans, particularly those in poverty, if done right. I think we can do it right. Maybe not perfectly, but better than anyone else, or at the very least, as well as anyone else.

Bernie Sanders believes in diplomacy. So do I. I’m pretty sure we’re not the only two. Only a complete idiot would believe that carpet-bombing would do anything more than make a bad situation worse. We’ve been wasting the greatest military the world has ever seen in pointless wars with virtually no end in sight, but the Republicans would have us believe that more of that is what we need. Escalation certainly worked in Vietnam, didn’t it? I served in the Air Force for 20 years, and I don’t believe, I know that we have the best military on earth. But military force is not the best tool for every situation, and the old tactics may not work in every situation. To just use our military as the de facto solution to every problem does the men and women in our services a huge disservice. Even the best tool will break when misused. I saw that in my own career, and I’m still unbelievably angry about it. I’ve tried writing about it a number of times, and I just can’t do it.

Think about this; we get our panties in a bunch every time N. Korea, or Iran, or Russia start rattling their sabers. How do you think a shop keeper in Syria, or a student in Iran feels about Cruz, Rubio, Trump, et al’s promises to the American people that we’re going to wipe them out? Knowing that we actually have the capability to do it? Think that might make them feel a little bit leery, a little bit hostile toward us?

Now obviously, there are going to be times when putting our troops in harm’s way will be necessary. But when we do, we need to make sure they have the tools and equipment they need, we need to have a clear plan, and we need to take care of them when they come home battered, bruised, and wounded, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Bernie Sanders believes in that too.

I personally think that income equality is a far greater enemy to the safety and security of this country than ISIS, or any other foreign power or force. Every chart I’ve seen shows the poor and lower-middle class wages have stagnated since the 80’s or 90’s, while the income of the guys at the top of the fiscal food chain looks like the trajectory of a rocket. If a poor man robs a gas station, and hurts no one, he’s going to jail. The big banks have robbed the entire country, and we bailed them out. No one went to jail, or at least no one important. Something’s got to change if we’re going to keep Karl Marx from turning from a radical boogeyman into a prophet.

Bernie Sanders is in favor of implementing renewable energy, like wind and solar, which are becoming more efficient every day. Other countries, like Germany, are making huge strides in this. We, on the other hand, are fracking, breaking up the foundations of the earth, and poisoning our own water, to suck a little more gas out. That’s fracking nuts. Oil, gas, and coal, are the past. I don’t believe we’ll ever completely replace oil and gas, especially in heavy industry applications, but a move to wind and solar could significantly reduce the demand for them, and the hazardous pollution they create, and they could make life so much more livable, especially for the poor. On the reservations in the west and southwest, where every year people freeze to death because they can’t afford fuel, wind and solar power could make a huge difference.

Bernie Sanders wants to do a lot of things that I’m highly in favor of. Do I think he could accomplish them all? No. I’m no starry-eyed dreamer. No one could accomplish all of them. But he could start them. They said the world was going to end when Teddy Roosevelt broke up the trusts and monopolies. It didn’t. They said FDR’s New Deal would reduce the country to wreck and ruin. It didn’t. We used to believe we could do things, great things, things that would make everyone’s lives better. We can believe it again. The best weapon in the war on terrorism and extremism isn’t guns or bombers. It isn’t money. The best weapon in that war is the American Dream itself, making America what it has always claimed to be; a place where any man, woman, or child, can get a fair shake, can become anything they want. A place where everyone can live, a place where even the little guy has a fair chance.

That seems to be what Bernie Sanders stands for, and that’s why I support him.

One last thing; the other candidates seem to think that we need to fear our own government, that the government itself is our enemy. It wants to enslave us, it cripples the economy with unnecessary regulations, it is a greedy, grasping vulture, feasting on the remains of our country. Gun rights wonks swear we need guns to protect us from our own military, the same military that we all, including guns rights wonks, swear we love. This presumes a willingness on the part of the government to order the military to use force against us, and the willingness on the part of that military that we all love, to follow those orders, and on a national scale.

The problem with that line of thinking is that the government is US! At least it’s supposed to be. If it’s not, it’s because we’ve allowed it to be taken out of our hands, usurped by powers that shouldn’t have it. You know what, we can take it back. That’s what voting is for. As Jim Wright says, “If you want a better country, be better citizens.” Get out and vote, even if it’s not for Bernie Sanders! But you should vote for Bernie Sanders. I am.