A letter writer recently offered this of Bernie Sanders: “To me, he epitomizes what made America great in the first place.” I couldn’t agree more. I’d like “to make America great again” or, at the very least, make America function again.

I urge you to consider Sanders’ commitment to rejuvenate the American middle class. The “backbone” of our country. A place where Sinatra once noted, “Everyone gets a fair shake — and then some.” “Everyone” includes Democrats, Republicans, persons of color and immigrants.

The divisive climate in our country perpetrated by those preying on our national dissatisfaction for political gain succeed only at undoing our greatness, not reinstating it. Carpet-bombing our way to a peaceful world is ludicrous. Simply and categorically, insane.

Why can’t the re-train our “military industrial complex” to build needful things, as opposed to $4 billion warships, when we haven’t fought a naval battle in 70 years? Or more aircraft, only to be stored in the California desert? When the Pentagon says, “Enough already with stuff we don’t need!” — why do we insist they do?

Our enemies fight us with battered Toyota pickups, laptops and cellphones, while our “boots on the ground” get picked off patrolling some God-forsaken hell hole. And for no apparent reason other than some warped sense of national pride. We lost whatever the hell we went to Iraq for to begin with — years ago.

To continue on the trajectory where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is a recipe for a disaster that’s already in the oven.

Thus far, Bernie Sanders has the only sensible thoughts relative to pursuing intelligent, peaceful and reasonable solutions to bring back the middle class. That aforementioned Sinatra tune concluded with, “That’s America to me.” Me too, Frank.

Buddy Doyle

Gardiner


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