Bernie Sanders should be the next President of the United States because he cares about the average American. Does Hillary Clinton support raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour? Does Jeb Bush want to provide free tuition for hardworking college students? Does Marco Rubio favor a single-payer system healthcare? The answer to all those questions is no. This is a result of Bernie not being shy about his beliefs.

Sanders is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, which is not a label someone adopts if they have designs on hiding the true nature of their beliefs. He didn’t shy away from issues like high marginal tax rates on the extraordinarily wealthy and a stronger social safety net when he was winning 1% of the vote in statewide elections in Vermont, when he was elected to the Senate with 71% of the vote, or today when he’s running for President.

Although some claim that fifteen dollars an hour is bad for America, I would respond that there are also positive effects to having a higher minimum wage. Some cities have already tried the fifteen dollar minimum wage, and the results were surprising. In Seattle, Washington, while owners were absorbing the cost of paying minimum wage employees $15, unemployment decreased 17 percent. This example and others further the argument that you can raise minimum wage and increase overall employment at the same time.

Bernie’s doubters claim that a single-payer system is bad for the country, and to that I would say a single-payer system is great for each individual county. County governments have a responsibility for the health of all their residents, especially for those at the margins. County governments desperately need a means of fulfilling their responsibilities without causing serious financial problems for county taxpayers. If people do not have health insurance, they do not get preventive care, they delay seeking treatment for illnesses, they use the emergency rooms more frequently than those with insurance, and counties end up paying in different ways for the unpaid and higher bills. The cost of the health forgone because of a lack of insurance has been estimated at $65 to $130 billion. The American people understand that our current healthcare system is not working. But the time is long overdue for them to understand that there is something fundamentally wrong when the US remains the only country in the industrialized world that does not guarantee healthcare to all its people.

Sanders is a long shot to win the Democratic nomination, much less the general election. In contrast to the rest of the field, Bernie’s ideas are exceedingly more progressive than any other presidential candidate. Furthermore, Sanders’ arguments will continue to resonate with middle-class voters, and his speeches will put immense pressure on Clinton and other top Democrats. Even if Sanders is too far left, candidates in both parties should listen to what he is saying and learn about some of the concerns that are shaping the electorate.