(Still) Fighting for Us
When I was at my lowest, Bernie Sanders was fighting for people like me. After Super Tuesday, I’m still going to pay it forward.
When Bernie Sanders’ chance at the 2020 Democratic nomination collapsed in the face of Joe Biden’s unprecedented Super Tuesday comeback, I felt a strange kind of calm.
I was unplugged from the internet for the most part. No CNN live-stream to mock, no constant refreshing of Politico for results, no awful Twitter hot takes. I had, for all intents and purposes, accepted that Bernie Sanders was not going to be the Democratic nominee for president and that Joe Biden, a candidate I disagree with about many things, was now the person I would have to vote for if I wanted to stop four more years of Donald Trump. But even amidst the bliss of acceptance, I had to wonder — why was I not angrier?
This is the same Democratic primary that started voting a month ago, where stress and anxiety overtook my mind as people waited for no results to come out of the state of Iowa because of an app. The field was refusing to winnow, the left felt like the game was rigged again, and the centrist millennial mayor of South Bend, IN was as close to the White House as he had ever been. 2016 being my first presidential election as an adult already messed with my head, but 2020 so far has felt more…intense. And the Iowa debacle just compounded that feeling. This was the party that we had to trust to stop Donald Trump? A party that cannot give us a clear picture of who won their primary?
For me, the Trump administration was many things, cruel and inhumane among them. But they were also pretty useless to me as a young person trying to find some semblance of economic security. After a brief stint as a field organizer after graduation, I was unemployed with no foreseeable opportunities to advance myself. At the same time, I had an apartment I could no longer afford, debt that needed to be paid off, and otherwise essential expenses that were suddenly in jeopardy. Sanders was offering help with material issues that mattered to my everyday life, so latching on to his campaign was a no-brainer.
Naturally, when one ties the results of an election to their attitude on the future, results like the one in Iowa wound up being unnerving! I kept wondering if I was overreacting to the idea of a Biden or Buttigieg nomination, or if the fear of poverty was consuming me. I was not thinking about the next year or two at this point, but rather whether I would make it to 35. This anxiety culminated in the most symbolic experience of my life, when I wound up totaling my car on the way home to watch the New Hampshire debate.
The accident, as destructive as it was to my car, wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I had insurance, there were no injuries, and the other car involved only saw minor damages. It really could have been worse. And yet, that accident had me re-evaluate many things. First, my anxiety had been ruining my life, as it had been for years now, and I could feel myself spiraling. So I made the choice to seek intensive professional help to become stable again. This was the first time I sought comprehensive treatment without the stressors of school or work present, and having both the ability to focus on treatment and the access to that treatment opened a new door to me, one where, in the face of every god-awful thing that could come up in my life, I still didn’t have to feel like I was suffering all the time. As someone with a host of chronic illnesses, including high blood pressure, depression & anxiety, and general obesity, making the mental shift towards understanding that life doesn’t have to feel like an outright struggle all the time was pretty significant.
My next realization was that life is better when you are secure in your needs. I didn’t seek help for my ailments because I wanted to splurge on my health, I sought help because I needed help. I am incredibly lucky in that I still receive health insurance through my father, but that will end in 2021. I have been asked time and time again by family about getting a full-time, long-term job with benefits to cover my treatments, unable to give a clear answer because I work in a field that is almost exclusively cyclical. The system that we have in place nationwide makes one thing clear, and that is if you don’t make enough money, or aren’t in the right career field, or don’t have a union advocating on your behalf, then you deserve to live a harder life. The same system that used to find it justifiable to deny coverage for the sick if they could not profit from is the same one saying that it is only fair that I pay out of pocket over and over again to see a doctor who is trying to save me, rather than ask Jeff Bezos to cover it, or Mike Bloomberg, or anyone else who is fortunate enough to be able to hoard obscene amounts of wealth. No one is asking that we eliminate for-profit health insurance for government plans with reduced coverage. No one is legitimately making that argument. What Sanders and his coalition are fighting for are government plans that are exceptional, ones that are secure. The United States prides itself on its exceptionalism, and it’s clear now that we are at a stage where we need to be exceptional with how we care for one another, to once again be leading the world.
As I became more rooted in what I prioritized in politics, I also began to understand why the Sanders campaign set the stage for the priorities to take center stage. Bernie Sanders may have had flaws as a candidate, but very few politicians have ever spoken to us, the people who are barely getting by, in such a way to indicate that our experiences matter. Explaining to someone the emotions felt when you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, when seeing a doctor is not a matter of when but rather if, when you are just tired of all of the struggling, is difficult and invasive for many. But it’s through this shared experience, all the fears and realities and anxieties, that people were willing to believe in a bold vision. People voted for Sanders because his agenda tells us that he gives a damn, and people concerned with the price tag and consumer freedom have yet to realize that. Not even a global health pandemic, one where frontline workers find themselves at risk of catching COVID-19 on a regular basis, has been enough to convince Joe Biden that Medicare for All would be worth the costs.
Before now, Biden as the nominee was a nightmare to consider, both in the short- and long-term. But while I was receiving treatment in group therapy, I learned about radical acceptance. To radically accept the world as it is, flaws and all, is the only way that you can have any chance of moving forward. And right now, barring an unprecedented comeback by Sanders, the 2020 election will be between Joe Biden, a man who does not represent my ideals, and Donald Trump, a humanitarian monster who’s also just very bad at being president.
Frankly, a Biden-Trump election just convinces me more that our problems as a nation are far greater than we probably realize, but the rise of people like Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez convince me that we don’t need to wallow in the fear. When you accept both the injustices experienced in society and the ability for people to organize and address those injustices, you recognize where you can be of service to the movement. I accept that these results do not spell victory for Medicare for All, and COVID-19 may end up worsening our strained health care system even more in the near future, spelling dark times ahead. But I also accept that we no longer live on the fringes of domestic policy, and that Universal Health Care IS possible in America, and we absolutely should not settle for a dimmer future. Sanders made clear in last night’s one-on-one debate that he is in this fight until the end, regardless of how or when it gets accomplished, and that is the attitude progressives must harness. We cannot focus on these losses and think about what more we could have done. We need to focus on getting access to free, high-quality health care to everyone, and putting in the work, regardless of circumstance, to get it done.
I hope I’ll do more eventually. Right now, my focus is on my health, for the simple reason being that it will always be a priority for me. I hope to learn more about campaign and media work, and how I can use my skills to advance the progressive cause. Someday I may even go back into organizing, as difficult and thankless my first experience was. The conversations are still important, and it’s nice to have a conversation with someone you’re willing to fight for.
Izzy Rodriguez is a Rice University graduate and political campaign staffer who writes about politics, music, and cultural trends. You can follow Izzy for more commentary and retweets on Twitter @IzzyRxdriguez.
