Submitted by Andrea Perrault

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, has been burning up the pages of the Huffington Post with his analyses of the current state of politics and the economy in the United States. I must say that his theories seem cogent and plausible.

In a column on January 20th “Who Lost the White Working Class?” Reich takes on Democrats for their role in the fact that white working class voters have abandoned them. While he lauds Democrats for significant victories that benefit these voters such as the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Family and Medical Leave Act, he chides them for failing to change a system that has brought us to the current state of glaring income inequality. In fact, he identifies specific policies in Democrats’ role in fostering this state of affairs. From free trade agreements to the diminishment of labor unions to the protection of Wall Street crooks and corporate pirates, to an inability to effect campaign finance reform, Democrats in the Clinton and Obama administrations have bolstered the power elites.

Ultimately, the Republican party has benefited from this lack of vision as the historic base of the Democratic party was splintered.

Suburbanites and urban culture elites prospered under the new economy, but the low-income and working classes fared much worse with expanded and crushing unemployment, mortgage loan crises, and the erosion of educational opportunities. While such inequities crippled many desecrating their American dreams, the Democratic beneficiaries of the “new” order turned a blind eye to this reality. The belief that the economy was rebounding became a common chant. These voters were certainly not standing up for their former allies in the party, until the system started crashing around them as well and began to destroy their futures too.

Now Bernie Sanders is gaining support as their children join the many dispossessed for a fairer vision and a future that will support rather than bankrupt them. While support for Bernie Sanders is Robert Reich’s call to the public, and I appreciate his sincere and accurate assessment of today’s economic reality in the U.S., I cannot cast my vote for Bernie Sanders. As a woman, I feel that the United States has failed in its ability to ensure equity for women across the board, and with an opportunity to elect the first woman for U.S. President, I must stand with Hillary Clinton. In order for women to achieve greater representation in employment and in political and corporate leadership, young girls need to see that they can have a place in this society where real power exists. I want to see greater opportunity for all in this country, current income inequality be obliterated, and corporate power significantly diminished.

I believe that Hillary Clinton will deliver on these issues. I believe that she now knows that this will be her mandate. I believe that a vote for Bernie Sanders will take us back to when George McGovern and Ralph Nader worked for progressive government. I expect that such a vote would in effect be a vote for Donald Trump, and I cannot go there.

As the primary season ends and the final election season commences, I hope we all will elect a new administration that values a shifting of the economic climate to assure economic prosperity for all. We all need a break from the current system..