With the presidential election coming up in 2016, many people have found candidates that they feel resonates with their ideals. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders seem to have attracted a spectrum very devoted and loyal voters that feel their respective candidate would be able to make changes they want to see.
Naturally, the bipartisanship that has been only polarizing more and more over the years has caused a great ideological divide amongst liberals and conservatives. It seems that people have a hard time looking outside of their affiliated parties and try to base not so well developed beliefs closer to what people in their party would think because it is more accessible and straying from the party can cause tension within in the party.
The problem occurs when our beliefs become so engrained and don’t allow us to see beyond what we want to see, allowing people to fall in the trap of representing politics rather than personal beliefs.
Donald Trump is known for being very open and honest without any sensitive or filter whatsoever, which is the main reason why he is hated by so many and the same reason why he is loved by so many. On the other hand, Bernie Sanders speaks against the ideas that so many candidates would never imagine speaking about, such as a $15 minimum wage, free college, racial, gender, and income inequality. So while these ideas have attracted young and old voters alike, the working class, even Republicans, people are not being critical of Bernie Sanders by any means.
Bernie Sanders said in one of the Democratic debates that he supported to ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and supports Obama’s airstrikes of Syria. He also doesn’t believe in the no-fly zone over Syria because “could get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never-ending U.S. entanglement in that region.” Over 250,000 people have lost their lives due to the conflicts of Syria and the issue of a no-fly zone doesn’t seem like the only factor that would lead to an entanglement. Perhaps if we had not bombed hospitals and sent drones our involvement there would never have been an issue.
Lincoln Chaffee was one of the only candidates to be critical of the current situation and stated that “we need a new paradigm in the Middle East” but it went unnoticed because of his low poll numbers. But when Bernie Sanders comes out and openly supports a genocide in Kosovo and the terror we have inflicted in the Middle East, he gets no backlash from his supporters. He also voted in favor of a “$1 billion aid package for the coup government Ukraine and supported Israel’s assault on Gaza.” The truth is Sanders is an imperialist like Obama, Bush, and all the presidents that came before. He supported the base of the new F-35 in Burlington, Vermont which was opposed by many of the citizens because of the health risks that the plane poses to people who live in the surrounding areas. The decision of the F-35 was not made in the best interests of the majority of people, but in the interests of the politicians that fell in the minority. Sanders, who constantly express his discontent with Super PACs and believes that elections should be won by the vote of the people rather than bought, made this decision with his fellow Vermont leaders that just marginalized the majority of people who did and still continue to protest against the F-35.
As a voter, I feel that voting is important, but supporting someone like Bernie Sanders who generally supports my social and economic ideals but is completely unaligned with my pacifist inclinations and anti-war beliefs puts me between a rock and a hard place. Often times you have to pick and choose between what issues matter most and what issues don’t matter as much. But when I hear Bernie Sanders speak about caring for the American person and how he wishes to improve the quality of life for those who don’t have power and wealth, I can’t help but remember his disregard for lives across the world that have been lost because of the politics of war and this hypocrisy has made me only made me question my initial support for him.
Even though we differentiate parties and candidates because of how opposite they seem, they all are flawed and it seems we are forced to pick who is the least of them all. Liberals and conservatives are always criticizing one another, but it’s time we look within our own parties and be critical rather than solely expressing our blind praise for the politicians who only address the issues that only immediately affect us.