Bernie Sanders Reaches Out To Evangelicals, Defends Social Agenda

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made his case to the student body Monday at Liberty University, a leading evangelical Christian college founded by the reverend Jerry Falwell that is located in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Vermont Senator worked to build what he called “common ground” with the students, who greeted Sanders “politely,” reported the New York Times.

“I believe from the bottom of my heart that it is vitally important for those of us wwho hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse,” Sanders told the crowd.

“It is easy to go out and talk to people who agree with you… It is harder, but not less important, to try to communicate with those who do not agree with us on every issue.”

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Although that sentiment was greeted with applause, the audience presented a unique challenge for the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist; a title that has drawn a fair amount of ire from the conservative right, a group that also tends to collectively disagree with Sanders’ positions on gay rights and abortion.

Both of these topics, along with a variety of other issues that are central to the Bernie Sanders campaign, such as income inequality, childhood poverty, climate change, raising the minimum wage and healthcare, were addressed during the speech and subsequent question and answer period, reported MSNBC.

“I understand that the issues of abortion and gay marriage are issues that you feel very strongly about. We disagree on those issues,” Sanders said during the speech.

“But let me respectfully suggest that there are other issues out there that are of enormous consequence to our country and in fact to the entire, that maybe, just maybe, we do not disagree on and maybe, just maybe, we can try to work together to resolve them.”

Bernie Sanders is one of the only (if not the only) major liberal presidential candidate to visit Liberty University, although Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Martin O’Malley have all been invited.

Also on Monday, Sanders struck back at a Wall Street Journal article posted Sunday that claimed his social agenda would cost upwards of $18 trillion over the course of 10 years. The article claims this number comes from “a tally by Wall Street Journal” after the publication examined a suite of proposals put forth by the Bernie Sanders campaign, but the candidate himself is determined to set the record straight.

“They significantly exaggerated the cost,” Sanders told Andrea Mitchelll of NBC News/MSNBC. Mr. Sanders is proposing a number of tax increases on the wealthy and on large corporations to pay for his social agenda and other proposals, instead of adding to the deficit.

“We are going to demand that the wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country do start paying their fair share of taxes.”

Sanders went on to condemn massive income and wealth inequality, which he has dubbed as one of the “great moral issues of our time.” He stated that 58 percent of all new income is currently going to the top 1 percent and called out major corporations that pay nothing in federal income taxes.

“Yes, we need real tax reform to bring in substantially more revenue.”

[Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images]