So Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for the upcoming 2020 presidential election, and everyone’s freaking out, including myself. He’s up against 11 other democratic candidates, 6 of whom are women, but according to ABC News Bernie believes that he “started the political revolution in 2016 and that he now wants to finish it.” Even though the independent Vermont senator is 77 years old, he doesn’t seem to have the desire to slow down anytime soon. He is pumped up and ready to go for the next election cycle, but that doesn’t mean he won’t encounter some of the same troubles, such as missing out on support from black voters, that he experienced back in 2016. Source: In These Times
Bernie’s 2020 main campaign statement reads: “Not me. Us. No one candidate, not even the greatest candidate you could imagine, is capable of taking on Donald Trump and the billionaire class alone. There is only one way we win — and that is together.” It seems like Sanders’ motivations for this election are similar to those he had back in 2016, taking on big business and strengthening the middle class. There’s even a T-shirt on his website that says “College for all. Medicare for all. Jobs for all. Justice for all.” If you remember back in 2016, one of Bernie’s main campaign policies was to provide free college tuition for all (awesome, right?!). In an interview with CBS News, Bernie speaks to those same ideas 3 years later by saying: “You know what’s happened in over 3 years? All of those ideas and many more are now part of the political mainstream.” If that doesn’t scream influence to you, then I don’t know what does. Despite how you might feel about Bernie Sanders, he definitely knows how to reach the young people of America (hello free college!!).
Source: Daily Camera
In an attempt to bringing it a little closer to home, Bernie Sanders was at CU last semester to rally for current governor Jared Polis and Joe Neguse, who is now the Congressional representative for Colorado’s second district. I didn’t get to go see Bernie last semester (and I’m still crying about it), but from what I heard it was AMAZING. He even said that he would to speak to anyone who wanted to after his 30 minute speech. Bernie Sanders is basically a hardcore warrior disguised as a teddy bear. Bernie showed some love for Colorado during his speech when he said that Colorado has spearheaded many issues affecting the whole country, such as the legalization of marijuana and raising the state minimum wage.
Source: Time Magazine
Bernie Sanders has been involved with politics for a long time, and according to CNN he was a member of the Young People’s Socialist League while he was working toward his B.A. in Political Science at the University of Chicago. He was even the inspiration for creating the Progressive Coalition, now known as the Vermont Progressive Party, when he was the mayor of Burlington, VT. He also attended the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech.” I don’t know about you, but if I could go back in time, I would definitely want to be there to hear MLK speak. He was also nominated for a Grammy with Mark Ruffalo for his spoken-word album “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In,” which in my opinion is pretty darn cool. Although there were allegations by several women of sexual harassment, pay disparities, and disrespect by some of his campaign members, Bernie publicly apologized and spoke to the fact that he was not aware of these allegations.
Source: Mother Jones
When Bernie announced his run on February 19th, he raised almost $6 million within the first 24 hours. Let me repeat that. 6 MILLION DOLLARS. Now that’s a lot of cash. He’s already got a lot of support and the actual presidential election cycle hasn’t even begun yet. Bernie is also a great dad and has had a huge political influence on his son. Levi Sanders ran for Congress in New Hampshire at the beginning of 2018, but unfortunately lost his bid in the democratic primary. I guess we’ll just have to see what this next race will bring us!
Source: CNN
No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, we all have to agree that Bernie seems like he’s going to keep on fighting for social justice and it seems like there’s no end to his political career in sight. I’m sure that once primary season comes around, you’ll hear crowds of people all across the country shouting “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” or “Feel the Bern!” Only time will tell with how this next presidential election will turn out.