It isn't Radical if a majority of people agree

I'm going to quote heavily from the following article:

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/11/america_is_ready_for_socialism_massive_majorities_back_bernie_sanders_on_the_issues_and_disdain_donald_trump/

I decided against simply reposting because, there's a word in there that really scares people: socialism.  Frankly, I hate labels and regardless of whether you are a conservative, liberal, communitarian or libertarian, chances are you don't fit neatly into a category.  Instead, what I'd like to highlight are the various issues that a majority of people in this country actually want that Bernie Sanders supports.  These numbers are taken from the "Big Ideas" poll commissioned by the Progressive Change Institute.


Allow Government to Negotiate Drug Prices (79%)
Give Students the Same Low Interest Rates as Big Banks (78%)
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (77%)
Fair Trade that Protect Workers, the Environment, and Jobs (75%)
End Tax Loopholes for Corporations that Ship Jobs Overseas (74%)
End Gerrymandering (73%)
Let Homeowners Pay Down Mortgage With 401k (72%)
Debt-Free College at All Public Universities (Message A) (71%)
Infrastructure Jobs Program — $400 Billion / Year (71%)
Require NSA to Get Warrants (71%)
Disclose Corporate Spending on Politics/Lobbying (71%)
Medicare Buy-In for All (71%)
Close Offshore Corporate Tax Loopholes (70%)
Green New Deal — Millions Of Clean-Energy Jobs (70%)
Full Employment Act (70%)
Expand Social Security Benefits (70%)

Obviously, you don't need to agree with each of these, but if you take a moment to go over this list, chances are you agree with most of these ideas.  For proposals like this, Bernie Sanders is being labeled as "extreme"?  How is it extreme to advocate for issues that most Americans want?  When did it become radical to reflect ideas that your democracy embraces?

Now, you may ask, "How is this possible"? Well, we know how.  First, a lot of people who share the above values don't vote.  Part of the reason is that there is no candidate who actually represents what they want, and when they have voted for a candidate that they believed held the same values that they held, they later felt burned because that candidate didn't seem to reflect what they wanted at all.  To those voters I say: Bernie Sanders does reflect what you value and voters in Vermont haven't felt burned by him. 

Next, a lot of people are simply fooled by Republican talking points.  Frankly, I don't have a problem with people who genuinely don't want the government to negotiate drug prices, or universal pre-K, this is a free country and people are allowed to hold whatever beliefs they want.  But if you allow a Republican candidate to sway you with talk of values, be they of the family or small town variety, I think you are basically getting swindled.  Let's take the attention off specifics to sell people on vague notions that most of us do agree on.  For example, I agree that lazy people should get off their asses, but I also know that lazy people in general have a very small impact on the world, because, well, they're lazy.  

Finally, there are a lot of people who agree with Bernie Sanders' platform, but they will vote for a "safer" candidate, because the knowledgeable experts have warned them that Sanders is "extreme" and "radical."  And so we have come full circle.  If you know what you want, don't be afraid to vote for it.  That is how you change America.