I just cast my Super Tuesday vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Elizabeth Warren. Let me tell you why

After disappointing performances in the past four primaries, former mayor Pete Buttigieg and billionaire Tom Steyer announced over the weekend that they were ending their candidacies for president. Super Tuesday is just a day away and with three wins in the primaries by Bernie Sanders and one by Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bloomberg need strong performances to be able to stay in the game. I’d vote for anyone but Bloomberg, but until now my heart was torn between Sanders and Warren.

As an overseas voter and a diabolically expert procrastinator, I waited until March 1st, the day before Super Tuesday and the same day I was moving apartments, to submit my electronic ballot for the Democratic primary election. After Cory Booker dropped out of the race, I’d been on the fence up until the very last minute between Warren and Sanders. A lot of progressives share my anxiety, too. Sanders’ and Warren’s policy proposals are similar and until recently they were friends – so unless you’re a die-hard Bernie Bro or a longtime Warren fan, for example, it’s not so clear which candidate would be the best choice to beat Trump at the polls in November and the most able to bring about the changes progressives want to see.

But I finally made up my mind and I’m voting for Bernie. Let me tell you why.

In terms of policy proposals, Sanders and Warren have similar but distinguishable plans. They largely have the same end goals in mind: universal childcare; raising the minimum wage; restrictions for Wall Street; expanding free, quality public healthcare for all Americans. Basically, they both want to improve life for marginalized groups and the non-wealthy. I have always been impressed with Warren’s preparation and the detail in her plans, but on issues of foreign policy, human and civil rights, Bernie’s roots run deeper.

More importantly, Bernie Sanders has the Democratic establishment scared and that intrigues me. Back in 2016, emails were released by WikiLeaks showing a coordinated effort by the Democratic National Committee to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders for the nomination. The scandal resulted in the resignation of the Chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and gave Trump plenty of fodder to taunt Dems and Hillary Clinton on Twitter with for years to come.

The son of a Holocaust survivor, Bernie Sanders is also the only candidate who has long taken a clear pro-human rights stance on Israel’s actions that violate international law, saying he would condition the receipt of military aid on compliance with international legal norms. It’s remarkable because of his unique position as the child of survivors of the worst genocide in modern history. It’s also remarkable because it’s a hard position to take for political reasons, even if most of the world outside America is settled on issues like illegal settlements. Bernie’s willingness to criticize the Israeli state and the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a bold, courageous and deeply unpopular path to take in American politics today and I admire him infinitely for his courage.

Finally, Bernie has the turnout needed to beat Trump. Since 2016, progressive voters have been telling the Democratic establishment that another middle-of-the-road candidate isn’t going to get the turnout the party needs to beat Trump at the polls. Bernie Sanders has garnered that turnout by proclaiming a revolution for years. His steadfastness on the issues and long decades of work fighting for the rights of lower-income and middle-class Americans is unparalleled.

I agree that Warren is an underappreciated politician and it’s highly compelling that she’s a candidate many women of color support. If she weren’t up against Sanders, she would’ve had my vote from the beginning. That’s not because she’s a woman, but because of her history in academia and the way she used her platform as a Senator on issues from impeachment to consumer rights.

America learned in 2016 that voting for a woman just because she’s a woman won’t get us anywhere. Sure, Hillary was wildly more prepared for the Oval Office than former reality TV star Trump – but that wasn’t what voters were looking for; they were looking for a revolution. Like Joe Biden or Michael Bloomberg, Clinton represented the stagnation and two-faced, back-door dealing that many people identified with the old Democratic establishment. Ultimately, that didn’t inspire enough votes in the states that mattered for the Electoral College.

After the pair’s feud in the January debate, I was almost certain I would vote for Bernie over Warren. Days before, Warren had accused Sanders of saying that a woman could never be president back in 2018. There was no hard evidence to support the claim. She then refused to shake his hand at the end of the debate after he reached out to shake hers. Her accusations about Bernie were reminiscent of her similarly unfounded claims of Native American ancestry. With the support of other Native American tribes, the Cherokee Nation even wrote her an open letter bringing her attention to the damage she had done.

Let’s face it – Donald Trump won on a platform of far-right revolution. Sanders can win for the same reason, but on the left. Democrats need someone who truly inspires people and has the years of experience necessary to fundamentally change this country. That person, whether mainstream Democrats like it or not, is Bernie Sanders.

It’s a revolution on the right or a revolution on the left, but there’s no time left for things to continue down the middle. The American brand of capitalism simply hasn’t work for most folks and we need big changes on multiple fronts. Let’s hope the Dems get it right this time around, or we’ll be looking at four more years of dog-whistle support for white nationalism, tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, kids in cages and an erratic, narcissistic reality TV star with his hand on the big red button.