We all know the narrative.
We’re attending college to better ourselves, yet instead of a bright future, all we can see is a murky horizon clouded by debt from our student loans. The job market should be our lighthouse of refuge, but instead the bulb has burned out, leaving us to crash into a shore of uncertainty. No jobs, insurmountable debt in comparison to our age and income, where the hell is our lifeboat?
Cue Bernie Sanders. A man who resembles a New England version of Woody Allen more than an actual presidential candidate. Unlike his Hollywood doppelganger, Sanders isn’t awkward with his ambitions. The man has a plan and is a serious political threat to the current state of our nation’s capital for all the right reasons. He speaks his mind and he speaks it freely. It is an endearing quality, and one rarely found in politicians.
Perhaps it is his Brooklyn roots and Jewish charm that strike a chord with millennial voters. The demographic the 76-year old Democratic presidential nominee is connecting with most is millennial voters across. But how the heck can a guy who has been in politics longer than most of us have been alive connect with us all so well?
For starters, the guy has guts. He has the guts to not only appease young voters’ concerns, but to actually stand by them. In 2008, when President Obama would visit a college campus, the entire crowd would roar. He was a symbol of change – a change from one of the worst presidents America has ever voted into the Oval Office. Yet Obama, a guy in the right place at the right time, he spoke to college students and young voters mainly because he wasn’t wearing a red tie; he didn’t necessarily speak for them.
Let’s look at that clouded horizon of student debt. Sanders plans to make education free, not just affordable. Instead of cutting interest rates and lowering tuition fees, Sanders aims to offer free education at public colleges and universities for prospective students. Imagine instead of having to worry about getting approved for a student loan and going directly to class without any financial burden looming overhead. It sounds euphoria-inducing.
While the idea of free education is certainly intriguing, in reality it will likely not be something we will partake in during our college years. Instead, if Sanders were to be elected, we would likely reap the benefits of his proposed hike to minimum wage. His proposal to raise the current minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 would certainly help us all afford our current college debts (or at the very least relieve some of our fiscal stress).
The reality of actually having a job that could make ends meet is a reassuring prospect that many of us college students do not have.
As college students, we are currently forced to trudge through four years of studies only to come out the other side with the possibility of a decent paying job. That is just a possibility – no guarantee. No, instead, the only guarantee we currently get with our nifty little diplomas is debt. College today can best be summarized as a four-year path to poverty.
Whether or not we want to admit it, the innate fear of graduating and living at home until we find a ‘suitable’ job is the reality we’re currently staring at. That broken lighthouse has damned us all. However, under the direction of Sanders that may not be the case. If the minimum wage was raised it could give us a glimmer of hope: hope that even if we do not land in our field of choice, we could live comfortably rather than paycheck-to-paycheck, flirting with the poverty line of poverty.
As glorious as $15/hr sounds, it is Sanders’ stance on economic equality that may speak the loudest to us college students. Even now in the 21st century, the average woman is making 78 cents to every dollar a man makes. That is inconceivable. It speaks volumes towards the current economic status of women in America.
If Sanders were to win the presidency he proposes to institute his ‘Paycheck Fairness Act’ that would ultimately cut the 12 cent difference and create a fair paycheck for every working man and woman.
His anti-Wall Street campaign slogan, “You Can’t Have It All,” is exactly how we all feel. We are young Americans, striving to carve out our versions of the American dream, yet we have so much stacked against us. We have imminent student loans waiting for us after college, making us question our decision to pursue our education in the first place. We have a stagnant job market to fall back on even after we graduate. Women continue to be undercut by Uncle Sam despite breaking through the glass ceiling over forty years ago.
Bernie is right. The upper one percent cannot have it all. There needs to be a future and Bernie understands that future starts with us.
His history of bipartisanship in both Congress and the Senate is unrivaled. The candidate holds the longest run in congressional office for an Independent, despite running as a Democrat. He stands by what he believes in and he is an enforcer for change. Quite frankly, he is the perfect candidate for us millennials to stand behind.
Sanders isn’t just an old man with independent plans for a new America. No, he is an independent man with new plans for an old America.
For a candidate who actually speaks and acts on his beliefs, one thing remains certain – if he expects to win, his largest fan base (us) has to get out and vote. After all, if he’s lobbying for us, we better do the same for him.
