A friend posted on Facebook that once again Bernie Sanders is proposing that election day be declared a federal holiday. According to Wikipedia, the rules about federal holidays are that on federal holidays, all non-essential federal offices are closed and employees in those offices get the day off, with pay. Businesses, organizations and schools outside of the federal government MAY give their employees the same benefits. Most don’t, save days like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and a few others.
Everyone who can afford Starbucks Coffee can get their Soy Latte Grande on almost every day of the year, even most federal holidays.
Bernie claims that his "Democracy Day" will give "everyone" the "time and opportunity to vote."
Except the barista who makes him his Soy Latte Grande on his day off. And the bus driver who got her to work. And the housekeeping staff who cleaned the rooms in the hotel next to the Starbucks. And the traveling nurse staying at the hotel who came to town to fill a labor shortage in the local hospital. And the medical tech person refilling the supplies at her nursing stations. And the childcare workers taking care of his kids. And the truck driver who brought the food service delivery to the childcare facility. And the gas station attendant who sold the driver gas for his truck and coffee that the driver could afford.
I like Bernie. He has some of the better ideas about how to change how we do government in the United States. But his vision of expansive time and opportunity for voting shows his cluelessness about class in this country. Which disappoints me. He should be better.
The only people who will benefit from that holiday are federal and some state employees and a few private business employees. But since most of the US are not those people, well, this holiday will miss its target of "everyone" by a long distance.
When I worked at Kinko's overnight, I had a one-hour commute by bus each way, which made my 10-hour shifts be really 12. With eight hours of sleep, that left four hours for showering, cooking, shopping, paying bills. It didn't leave much time for voting.
The extent of his support for expanded voting rights is about opposing voter ID laws, encouraging this holiday, and supporting election finance reform. Sad trombone.
Bernie, if you really want to expand voting in the United States, you can nationalize early voting and voting by mail, you can federalize the right to vote for everyone, including those in prison, you can mandate paid time off to vote.
If you get this holiday passed, I promise to give you a pair of American Flag leggings. Because that's about all the holiday is worth, a bit of patriotism to show off to your white middle class supporters.
