Bernie is back: but is it beneficial?

Earlier this week, I was made aware of some serious breaking news on the political frontier. Bernie Sanders is running for President again. The democratic party is my main focus of this blog series, because of my total passion and involvement within it, however, this news wasn’t exciting for me. Instead, it worries me. Not only does it pose a problem politically, but he also- as progressive, liberal and open-minded as he may be, unknowingly plays into the issue of institutional racism and sexism. The fear that comes to mind is that, in an election where we have so many strong minority candidates, and female candidates, throwing Bernie Sanders, -someone lots of America is already comfortable and familiar with – into the mix really takes away from more promising up and comers. If you were paying attention between the years of 2014-2016, when election drama, debates, and arguments were at an all-time high, you probably noticed that Bernie was all the rage. His catchy motto “Feel the bern” was all over social media. He made himself incredibly appealing to millennials by taking a stance on some of the most important issues to their age range. For example, one of the biggest issues millennials, and now Gen Z were and are now facing is the cost of education. Sanders took a stance on the overwhelmingly draining cost of education in the United States, and this was appealing. He also was active on social media, and generally just appealed to a younger generation. This took him all the way. Clinton and Sanders were the final two standing from the DNC. Ultimately, Clinton won the candidacy and GOP nominee Donald Trump won the presidency. This algorithm can essentially predict how this election will go. To explain, you had Sanders who won the appeal of the -generally- younger, more naive generations. This gave him enough financial and political support to propel him -almost- all the way. Hillary Clinton however, had the support of older and more politically active Democrats. However, the two are so vastly different in their supports and views, that it was clear that there wasn’t much overlap in who would support and ultimately vote for them. Many people didn’t trust Clinton and therefore chose to vote for Bernie instead in the primaries. When she won, and it was down to Trump and Clinton, people were so attached to Sanders and the promise of “free college!” that they didn’t vote at all! Essentially, if we allow Sanders and his at times- unrealistic promises take advantage of the mass amount of uninformed college students, we take away from amazing candidates like Kamala Harris and Corey Booker, and then suddenly, we have someone in the Presidency that we don’t want, all because we had one candidate with such extreme views in comparison to more realistic and stable views. But as appealing as Sanders may be, he is not credible as president.” Elizabeth Warren would have been a credible candidate, but Sanders isn’t. The campaign he has been waging is a symbolic one. For example, the proposals he has made for free college tuition and free, single-payer health care suggest what might be done if the United States underwent radical change. Those ideas would be excellent grist for a seminar. But they are not the proposals of a candidate who is serious about getting things done as president—or one who is serious about getting elected in the country we actually live in.”

Bernie has his heart in the right place, but we have lots of people who could do a beter job. Let’s not take this from them.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-2016-213560