The way the media, including some here, the “establishment,” etc. are treating young Bernie supporters is ridiculous. It is offensively condescending. And inaccurate.
Third post so I’ll do some brief biography before I continue:
-4th year undergrad, entering a Ph. D program in History next fall
- Lower class origins, proudly. Single, disabled mom can only make so much to feed a family of four (3 sons!)
- I read, a lot. I am not a young idealist. My thoughts are formed from a lot of reading and, of course, personal experience. Not idealistic. Radical, perhaps- I identify as a Socialist (with a capital S, far to the left of Bernie)
- Activist on campus.
- I apologize for the poor writing, didn’t edit well/mostly stream of consciousness; hey, I got places to be- it IS Friday and I AM in college (can only exploit early semester undergrad for so much longer) :D
Why do young people support Bernie?
Typical answers: idealist young people don’t actually understand how things works, the “Bernie bro,” the idea that young people like Bernie because he is going to make college free, it’s the “cool” thing to do, we don’t understand electoral politics or “how general elections work” (meaning you NEED a moderate), etc. The supercilious condescension pisses me off. Has it ever occurred to anyone that young people are simply educating themselves? That we aren’t stupid? It’s an obvious choice for- anecdotal- 90% of the people I know on my campus.
Look, we weren’t indoctrinated to the same level as those before us with bull shit Cold War propaganda that alienated so many from the words “Socialism” and “Communism.”
We’re well educated.
We have felt the brunt of neo-liberal economics more than the generations before us. We are finding it nearly impossible to afford rent, buy a home, find a well paying job, to live.
Yes, student debt is a big concern to us. But we’re not stupid. Obviously for us college students now we know that electing Bernie wont affect our college debt as much as we would like. We already have it. He is not calling for student loan forgiveness (unfortunately). But we, since we’re living it, know how oppressive and unjust this debt is. We don’t want anyone else to have to deal with this.
We live in a more globalized world. I regularly interact with people from other parts of the world. It is abundantly clear to me, via an easy google search, how BACKWARDS this country is. No paid family leave, shit infrastructure, the student debt crisis, denying climate change, GMO’s run amuck, Citizen’s United, absurdly low minimum wage, no national healthcare, etc.
Nationalized healthcare is common sense. If you don’t support that, you don’t stand for the working class.
Climate Change is real. We all know this. It’s scary. It scares the crap out of me, honestly. WE NEED TO DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO MITIGATE CLIMATE CHAOS. This is not idealism. This one issue irks me the most. We’re not idealist young people just looking to protest, be naive, etc. LOOK, if the Earth was at risk of warming to an extent that life as we know it, perhaps humanity itself, was no longer possible, wouldn’t it be the LOGICAL thing to do to STOP this ASAP? Ask yourself that one question and then ask if you think Hillary will address this issue. Don’t tell me she’s better than the R’s. I don’t care if she’s better than them. If don’t address this, we are doomed. It’s not like a livable wage where you can enjoy your privileged status and say “well, she did all she could. Just the way it works.” and then not have to see the problem- the inhumane realities of poverty: homelessness, hunger, hopeless. This is an issue that “better” means catastrophe that you cannot ignore. You wont be able to walk fast past the beggar, read the story about the person who died due to a lack of healthcare, struggle over your petty Bourgeoisie concerns. This is a problem that will hit us all. War, famine, mass migration, suffering, death, and collapse. The logical thing to do is to address this crisis. I don’t care if China and India don’t cooperate. We have been, historically, the biggest contributors to climate change. We need to step up to our historical and moral responsibility.
We KNOW Bernie can’t just wave his hand and fix these problems. Obviously. BUT it sends a YUUGGGEEEE message to the Party and the Nation. WE WANT THIS. MAKE IT HAPPEN. We’re sick of this corporate BS. Further, though he can’t make it all better, he can still do quite a bit. Imagine a President Sanders as commander-in-chief: do you see us going to war? I don’t. Imagine his secretaries and department heads! Rather than the Obama route of leaving neocons and neo-liberals in their positions of power, Sanders would dump those chumps. He would aggressively use Executive Action, he would appoint Progressive justices, he would veto GOP garbage.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: He would shift the paradigms of our political discourse. With President Sanders, we will be hearing about these grave issues and our need to address them with urgency regularly and convincingly.
I can only speak for the population at my school, of course, and the handful of friends from others. But, at least at this state school, it seems like the BernieBro is pure myth. Cause those “dudes” who the original article claimed were BernieBro’s are not the people supporting Sanders in my anecdotal experience. They are the uninterested minority.
I’ll end with an honest question: IF young people lean progressive (lean? Are overwhelmingly*), and the percentage of young people (voters*) continues to grow every year….. Doesn’t it make sense that our political capital grows concomitantly? That what you saw in ‘08 and ‘12 will continue but even greater now? Because there are more and more of us, and we ain’t stooooopid.