Support Sanders for strong unions

Sen. Bernie sanders is a strong advocate for middle-class union workers

Unions are the essence of the middle class; they provide equal pay among your male and female counterparts, health benefits, paid vacation and sick leave, and safe working conditions; the right to bargain. Unfortunately, private sector jobs usually don’t provide unions for their employees; therefore, they work longer hours for little pay, poor working conditions, no paid vacation, sick, and maternity leave.

Sanders has stood by union workers since his time as mayor of Burlington, Vermont in the 1980s. He’s joined picket lines on many occasions and stood on the Senate floor to back bills to help increase the right of workers to join unions. Sanders has said the middle class was the envy of the world 40 years ago but now faces a decline. In order to strengthen the middle class, we have to restore workers’ rights to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Sanders has proven himself to be the best Democrat to build a stronger middle class and for workers to have the ability to join unions in the private sector without backlash from their employers.

Jenny Arnold

Renewable Fuel Standard important

The Renewable Fuel Standard gets a bad rap from a lot of people, particularly Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Both consider the standard corporate welfare, refusing to acknowledge their checkered past of supporting the oil industry through Senate actions, tax credits, and deferments.

The fuel standard allows market access for ethanol and biodiesel made right here in Iowa. It displaces oil we would otherwise have to import from violent and erratic places. It displaces oil that is less efficient and is more costly to acquire and refine. Ethanol keeps more money in real Americans’ wallets through well-paying jobs and lower fuel prices instead of going to oil industry executives. The fuel standard costs taxpayers nothing, unlike the cost of all the wars and subsidies we have for the oil industry. Stand up for common sense and caucus to protect the fuel standard on Feb 1. See where your candidate stands at www.americasrenewablefuture.com.

Ragib Dedajic

Will Hell freeze over?

Hell must be about to freeze over, because I’m ready to vote for someone most political pundits call a stupid blowhard. The supposedly stupid man who graduated from the New York Military School in 1964 and went on to graduate from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in finance. The candidate called a clown, racist, and bully who took over his father’s business in 1971, guided the organization through good and bad years, and has a net worth today of more than $2 billion. The businessman whose organization employed 22,450 employees and brought in $9.5 billion in annual revenue in 2015. The lifetime New Yorker who the White House calls a bigot for suggesting a temporary ban on Muslims but has the guts to say what he believes, unlike almost all the others running.

I think I will vote for the unlikable TV celebrity who has high unfavorables in polls but whose decisiveness rating is at 80 percent and has a proven record showing confidence, resilience, and fearlessness. The dealmaker and true maverick that has Democrats and the establishment Republicans so concerned he may win that they have greatly overused adjectives in an attempt to discredit his accomplishments and positive traits.

I’m ready for real change, not the phony Obama “Hope & Change” or the desperate call from establishment Republicans to elect a real conservative “purist.” Bring in the pundit’s clown, idiot, blowhard, fool, racist, bully, bigot, or, as the esteemed Brits call, a wazzock, buffoon, demagogue, xenophobe, homophobe, and misogynist.

Darrell Grigg