April, 02 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Edward Erikson (edward.erikson@gmail.com), Norman Solomon (solomonprogressive@gmail.com), Jeff Cohen (jeff@rootsaction.org)
"Still Ahead of His Time": Progressive Advocates Release Video Illustrating Senator Bernie Sanders' Career-Long Support for a System Able to Solve Healthcare Crises
Video by RootsAction Points to Why Sanders is the Strongest Candidate to Take On the COVID-19 Pandemic.
WASHINGTON
A progressive advocacy group released a short video today emphasizing that Senator Bernie Sanders is the strongest candidate in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The online video, "Still Ahead of His Time," illustrates Sanders' career-long advocacy for universal healthcare and pro-worker policies needed to address the global pandemic that has crippled the U.S. economy and overwhelmed our healthcare system.
"The coronavirus pandemic has shifted the paradigm of the Democratic primary," said Jeff Cohen, RootsAction.org cofounder. "Voters are watching in real time as Bernie Sanders' platform--Medicare For All, a federal housing guarantee, paid leave for everyone and much else-- is looking more and more like a common-sense solution to huge problems. With 27 states and territories left to cast their votes, we believe that it's important to deliver this message as widely as possible."
To watch the "Still Ahead of His Time" video, click here.
The video features archival footage of Sanders throughout his political career, beginning with his tenure as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in the 1980s through his career in Congress and ultimately into his current campaign for president. It includes a 1987 clip of Sanders decrying unaffordable healthcare costs, and a 2005 warning at a congressional hearing of the need for all-out battles against global pandemics.
"The coronavirus is exposing horrible gaps in our system," said Norman Solomon, cofounder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. "But it's important to note that they are not new flaws that appeared overnight. Americans have long suffered from the outrageous costs of healthcare, and most workers know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck. These are longstanding realities that have gone unaddressed by the political establishment and left us more vulnerable to this pandemic. They're basic problems in our political and economic system that Bernie Sanders has been correctly diagnosing his entire career."
RootsAction is an independent online organization "dedicated to galvanizing people who are committed to economic fairness, equal rights for all, civil liberties, environmental protection -- and defunding endless wars."
RootsAction is dedicated to galvanizing people who are committed to economic fairness, equal rights for all, civil liberties, environmental protection -- and defunding endless wars. We mobilize on these issues no matter whether Democrats or Republicans control Washington D.C.
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