Liberal comedian and actress Sarah Silverman released a video on Monday claiming socialism is “wildly American” and explaining why she supports U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “I met someone I have more in common with.”
According to Silverman, Sanders is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who has voted “on the right side of history every single time” even though “many of the stands Bernie took were unpopular at the time,” but “he believed they were right.”
She began her commentary by stating:
Look at this, another election year. Can you believe it?
A lot of people urge you to vote; that's not what this video is. If you vote or not, that’s not my business. I’m not your mommy.
“It's important that you treat your vote as something valuable because it is,” the comedian noted. “It's so valuable candidates literally spend billions of dollars trying to get your vote.”
“Hillary had always been my choice,” she admitted, because “I’m a feminist. Democratic woman president? Yes, please! But she takes a lot of money from big corporations and banks, the very people she says she's going to stand up to.”
“And look, I accepted it because I saw it as a necessary evil, as the way it is. Every politician takes money from big money ever since it was made legal with Citizens United,” a law that states the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures.
“It's not right, but it's legal. It's legalized corruption,” Silverman noted. “If all the ball players are taking steroids, then you have to take steroids too to compete, right?”
“I'm not against Hillary,” the actress stated. “I just -- sigh -- I met someone I have more in common with, and his name is Bernie Sanders,” the senator from Vermont “who miraculously has not and will not take money from SuperPACs.”
“Bernie is not for sale,” Silverman added.
“This man is running for president on a platform that is just a giant ‘f--k you’ to the above-the-law billionaire class who have been controlling government policy with their money and not paying a nickel in taxes through government loopholes they secure with said money,” she noted.
“Bernie is running on a platform of overturning Citizens United and making the untouchably rich accountable for their fair share of taxes so all of America's children can have good education and health care, not just the rich.”
Silverman then said she agrees with Sanders' belief viewing “education and health as a right, not a privilege, not charity as every American citizen's right.”
“So this is where you scream: “But he's a socialist!” she shouted.
“Yeah, he is a socialist Democrat,” the comedian noted. “Now let me explain what that is: He just believes that people who don’t have the same advantages as you and me should be given the same advantages as you and me.”
“Do you like firefighters?” Silverman asked. “That’s socialism. That’s a socialized program. That’s a program that the government pays for so everyone can have it. Not anti-American. In fact, it’s wildly American.”
She then stated:
So now you say: “But is this achievable? It's pie-eyed. It's unrealistic.”
A lot of people have said that, and those people are wrong because without taking a penny from SuperPACs, corporations or special interest groups, Bernie Sanders raised over $100 million from over five million individual donations, donations from human people averaging $27 each.
“And with that, he proved that what is right can also be possible.” the comedian noted. “He's proven that Citizens United is not a necessary evil, it's just evil.”
Silverman then rattled off a list of policies that will be put in place if Bernie Sanders wins the White House: “free college for every American, quality health care for every American, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a livable wage. He believes that people who work a 40-hour week shouldn't be below the poverty line.”
However, “a lot of people will vote for Hillary because they don't think Bernie can win.” she indicated. “That is what my shrink would call a 'self-fulfilling prophecy.'”
“All you have to do is look at his track record,” the comedian noted. “Many of the stands Bernie took were unpopular at the time.”
However, Sanders voted for those things “because he believed they were right, and history has proved him right every time,” she claimed.
“I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who genuinely represents the interests of people,” Silverman stated, “not as a stance, but as a core belief, as his guiding principle.”
“Don’t be suckered into a rigged American Dream ponzi scheme that was never intended to include you,” she concluded. “Vote … for Bernie.”
