The Spectrum in America: Trump to Sanders and the Role of the Younger Generation.
“The 2016 election coverage, I haven’t been this addicted to television since Breaking Bad,” reads one of my favorite memes currently circulating the internet.
It’s true. I can’t get enough of it. The debates. The discussions about the debates. The endless stream of ever-changing polls. The memes. The articles. The videos. It is American political theater at it’s finest. Our democracy (cough cough oligarchy cough cough), is at work in all her glory. The citizens are choosing their leader. And in a democracy, every voice gets to be heard, even if it is a misinformed, easily swayed, religiously motivated, poorly educated, politically, culturally, and judicially ignorant voice. That’s democracy. The citizens get to vote for whatever reasons they want to vote for. They may have a good understanding of American history and policy, and be basing their vote on who fits into their understanding of what is needed right now. They may have supported one of the two political parties for a long time and be for whichever candidate arises from their chosen party. They may be passionately for a specific social issue, or religious issue, or foreign policy issue and be basing their vote solely on the candidate who addresses that issue in the right way. Or they may just like the candidate in their gut.
That is how so many of us ultimately make our decisions, why would voting for a presidential candidate be any different? We make some choices emotionally. On instinct. What feels right. So if I’m a committed Christian, and one of the candidates is sure to bring up his Christian faith often, I’m guessing something about him is just going to feel right. And of course we want to feel right about our president. This is why Trump and Sanders are such great indicators of how the majority of the country is feeling. Their popularity can clearly be attributed to a major dissatisfaction with the current political system amongst our citizens. They are two opposite sides of the spectrum of perspective in American citizens. As much as it pains me to associate Bernie Sanders with Donald Trump in any way, their connection is clear. They come off as authentic. They are consistent. Sanders has been consistent in his views and stances for his entire political life. And Trump is consistently…Trump? They are both seen as outsiders, which holds value in this election. Many Americans have learned, with good reason, to distrust the political insiders.
Hillary Clinton is a career politician. She is a master in the games of the political establishment, as seen from the political establishment. (Feel free to read political establishment as corporate establishment as they are interchangeable). She is the only proper candidate, the perfect candidate, way more electable, maybe already elected, crushing the polls, so hip she’s dabbing with the youngsters, and invented Obamacare (Hillarycare), according the media, which is entrenched in the political establishment. Sanders is an unelectable, farfetched, overreaching, pie-in-the-sky, crazy uncle according to the media which again, is entrenched in the political establishment. Trump is an unelectable, unsuitable, undeserving, mockery of the game, according to the media (and I might agree), which one more time, is entrenched in the political establishment. In case you missed it, the media is one in the same with the political corporate-funded establishment.
But that’s just it. The majority of citizens are not part of the political establishment. And the rise of Trump and Sanders supporters shows us how many of our citizens view the political establishment. They are angry at the status quo of our political system. So whether you’re on the side of liberalism, social justice, civil rights, equality, anti-corporate influence, and overall accountability and reform, or on the side of conserving “traditional america” (cough cough white america cough cough), bomb’em, deport’em, wall’em, arrest’em, don’t need facts and will not listen to facts and Obama is worse than Hitler: the message is clear: We want change. And we need a perpetrator of that change. We need a leader of that change. We need a symbol that things will be different. Cue Trump and Sanders.
There is actual Bernie Sanders, who has stood for civil rights and social justice his entire political career, who has stood against corporate greed and inequality his entire political career, who has stood against the corrupting influence of money in politics his entire political career, who has stood against the deregulation of Wallstreet, who has stood for the fading middle class and struggling poor citizens, who voted against the Iraq war, who has stood for our under-cared-for veterans, and who has the footage to prove this history. There are the actual Bernie Sanders policies that he has laid out that can be studied and reflected upon. Policies based in addressing the issues of the corrupting influence of money in politics, the massive issues of student debt and healthcare costs, the failed war on drugs and booming prison industry, and all around inequality culturally and financially. Then, there also is what Bernie represents to us. He represents a revolution of the political system that we have been so dissatisfied with. He represents a hope that our system can actually work again. He represents our lost hope. He puts the progress in progressive. And his supporters respond to his authenticity.
There is actual Donald Trump. The bankrupt four-times, “build-a-wall-make-them-pay-for-it”, muslim-deporting, celebrity-businessman making America great again. There is his actual great comebacks and zingers during the debates. There are his actual speeches where he often isolates entire cultures. There are his actual re-runs of The Apprentice. And then there is what Trump represents. A strong leader. The total opposite of a pussy. (A dick? A boner? Whatever that flat patch a Ken doll has?) He represents the first amendment rights closet-racists have been shamed from using for so long. He is a take no bullshit, does what he wants, says what he wants, is smart because he says he is, perfect representation of a freedom loving American boss, which is apparently what many Americans have been looking for in the political world. And his supporters respond to his authenticity.
Trump is resonating with the people who love America to be just that. A symbol. A beacon of freedom and independence. The pinnacle of democracy. The smartest, bestest, strongest, richest, most dreamy country in the world. Everything they believe to be true and good, despite facts and historical perspective, and a basic inability to accept the massive shortcomings and atrocities in American history. Their America is just like Trump, great because he says so, despite facts and historical perspective.
Sanders is resonating with the people who see him as a symbol of the America they want to see. A country with great promise and hope, but clear about it’s flaws and the fact that it has been built on exploitation, a country that needs to adjust and address what isn’t working, and start building a system that will work for all, not just a select few. They love him as a symbol of rebellion against their long standing understanding that politicians and corporations are corrupt and need to be held accountable. They also love the fact that he has policy ideas to back up his beliefs, policies based in his actual passion for the issues and actual compassion for people, not a flaunted compassion because it is convenient right now and will win him votes, a compassion that has been a through-line to his life that can be seen in his speeches of the past. He represents a hope that our system can work.
These are the two ends of the spectrum in America right now. Both sides valuing authenticity, which is clearly a reaction to the coached, trained, adjusted, pandering politicians of our recent history. Both sides are angry about how America has been governed and influenced. Both sides are hungry for a leader in this flawed democracy. But that is where the correlation between Trump and Sanders, and Trump supporters and Sanders supporters, falls flat.
Because one side is based in reality and facts. It is based on evidence that certain policies haven’t been working, like deregulation and allowing corporations to be considered people. It is based on actual needed change and actual policies to kick-start that change. It is based in compassion for people and a desire to make the country work for everybody.
And the other side is based on a made-up notion that our country is so far off track, and that all of the many problems facing America, including financial inequality and Isis, are solely because of the leadership of President Obama during the last eight years. This side is based in bigotry and nonsense. In separating people and playing on people’s fear of each other. In proving who has the bigger balls, the bigger dick, the bigger bank account, the nicer car, the louder argument, the smallest patience for pussy-liberal shit like “thinking before acting”. When one side is based in reality, and the other side is based in Trumpland, the scales are not even.
Trump winning the Republican candidacy is terrifying many in the Republican establishment, and yet it is exactly what they deserve. Time to reap what has been sown. Over the past 10 years the Republican Party has swung so far to the right that it has forced moderate conservatives to look like progressive liberals. There has been pandering to the extremists of the party so as to not be ostracized by their own. The Republican establishment fueled this diversion to the far right. It was good for business. Fear mongering. Polarizing race and religion. Promoting un-intellectualism. Encouraging disinformation and the muddling of clear facts, and in many cases, ignoring the facts all together, to protect their big money interests. They funded the Tea-party. They broke bipartisanship. Obstruction became the name of game. They caused a government shutdown, and successfully convinced their base that it was the Democrats at fault. They have been stirring up the underbelly of America and given it a voice, because that was how power and control were maintained, but now the underbelly is supporting a candidate who is anything but controllable.
Bernie winning the Democratic candidacy must be equally terrifying for the Democratic establishment, judging by the lopsided media coverage favoring Hilary. From an outside viewer, the coverage doesn’t seem to be treating both sides equally, whether it is the way some debate questions are phrased, or just the overall media coverage of the Sanders campaign. They keep saying he doesn’t stand a chance, and yet the delegate count is very close to even so far, and the national polling is even closer. Yet many news outlets are already showing stats granting Clinton superdelegate votes that don’t even get cast for a number of months. The establishment is trying to say it has already been decided, when to the American people, it is still the early days of a close race. Look at the way he keeps climbing in the polls. Look at the massive turnout he draws at his rallies. Look to the internet for his real footprint. His message is resonating with very close to half of democrats and independents. And he is crushing Clinton when it comes to the millennial vote. We all know that when younger people turn out to vote, democrats win elections. And now it seems, that if younger people turn out to vote, Bernie is more likely to win the Democratic nomination.
The young vote can actually make the difference in this primary. The young vote can be the margin of difference to make or break the Sanders campaign. And from where I am standing, if you are a millennial and are not supporting Bernie Sanders, I think you might be missing something. It is our role as the younger generation to show the older generation where it has been corrupted, not to fall in line with the accepted shortcomings of the current system. We are meant to believe that our world can be changed for the better, not already be jaded by our expected disappointments. We are meant to believe in the power of compassion, of which the older generation has grown numb. We are meant to stand for hope. We are meant to stand for change. We are meant to be the political revolution.
We get to be idealists, it is one of the many perks of being young. And Bernie isn’t just an idealist, he is a practical idealist, meaning he can actually implement his ideals with policy. And he is a passionate idealist, meaning he will fight for what he believes in, and not continue to make concessions to a Republican party that refuses to behave in a civil, or constitutional manor. And he is a highly intelligent and thoughtful idealist. Look at the way he predicted the dangers of invading Iraq, or the way he predicted the economic crash as a consequence of deregulation.
Bernie Sanders is standing against money in politics, the very thing which has corrupted every facet of this supposedly democratic system. He has had the courage to actually run his campaign without the millions contributed to every other campaign from big donors. He wants to pass healthcare for all. He wants to address the prison industrial complex, which makes imprisoning citizens a for-profit business. He wants to address the war on drugs, which has not lowered drug-use at all and is proven to disproportionately affect people of color more than whites. He wants to provide college for all, and get rid of student-debt, which is crippling a whole generation from participating in the economy. He is standing for equality and progressive change, like he has been his entire life. He is standing for America to be known for the way it takes care of its people. He is standing for America to be known for its education. He is standing for America to think before it acts. He is standing for America to finally tip the balance back towards the many rather than the few. He is standing for you and me. And he is hopefully ushering in a revolution to this bought-and-paid-for political system.
I fully support Senator Bernie Sanders for president.
**Watch him call out the dangerous outcomes of invading Iraq. Think about how valuable it would have been to have this man as commander in chief. There are many other Bernie speeches of the past that demonstrate his consistency, and capability as a leader.
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