#FREEBERNIE

By Edin Candic

Now where the hell did the tide turn to this time…

            “Mr. Sanders is not and has never been a liar. His remarkable consistency over time, his notorious bluntness and his open disdain for sycophantic politics are all simply manifestations of that one critical fact. It made him an awkward fit for Washington, and it built him a movement”(Bruenig 2020). Well here we are again… 2020 stuck in somewhat of a mess world wide. Chaos has broken out worldwide and a modern plague ravages the world, yet our Presidential race continues, but for the People’s candidate, Brooklyn- born Bernie Sanders has announced he is suspending his campaign. Some people I’m unfortunately surrounded with at work said it was inevitable from the jump that Joe Biden was bringing home the Democratic Division Trophy, I asked,” How? How was it inevitable?” They said that his young voters just wouldn’t show up, one said “All bark no bite!” Are you serious? Are “we” the young movement to blame for his downfall again? As a lady waiting for her package at my job asked, “Well where did the actual tide turn? I asked a good question. Four years ago Bernie came out the gates hot, but never had a strong presidential campaign like this one. In 2016 his funding, his movement, just about everything was weak, but he came back in 2020 with such fire that it took the young movement by storm. It breaks my heart to see that yet again a door to change has closed for the time being. I say, #FREEBERNIE, because I came into the neighborhood the day of and my neighbor from his porch holding a beer says, “Now what young life? What’s the plan for this Presidential Campaign now?” Bernie wanted to ban the Three Strike Law and end solitary confinement. He wanted to give voice back to felons so they too could step out and vote. For the students he aimed to put a cap on student loan interest and increase pay for public school teachers.

Did we, the “young life” play a role in the Berne Sanders defeat, or was it the large fast spreading COVID-19 that kept voters indoors and voting less. As a young teenager, I feel like COVID-19 enabled teenagers to be lazier than ever before, but is that truly to blame for the suspension of his campaign? Some say Bernie failed to reach the minority and failed to reach the African American voters, one quote states, “Biden won 64 percent of the African American votes cast in the South Carolina primary, compared to the 14 percent of black votes carried by his chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders”(Bolton 2020). I too believe that every time these crucial times for our country come around we tend to hang on one excuse and blame the whole “game” to that one point, but there’s no doubt about it we had to do better and we should continue to do better throughout the rest of the Election.

“Mr. Sanders hopes to push his rival even further, declaring that he is staying on the ballot in upcoming contests to collect delegates in hopes of influencing the party platform at the convention. But he also promised that Democrats would enter the fall campaign “standing united”(Lerer 2020).

There’s no telling where the country will stand once this lockdown is lifted and we’re able to go outside again, but one thing is for sure the Presidential Election is happening and will continue to happen throughout November of this year. What I hope to see is the People and the one’s I call the “Young Life” continue to look forward and continue to open up doors for any kind of change. I advise that we, the young movement, continue to push boundaries and to challenge those who attempt to destroy the beauty in whatever’s left of this crumbling cookie. As I continue to walk through my neighborhood and I see the older man mentioned earlier, I yell out to him “#FREEBERNIE”. Our movement will never have another Bernie, but our movement does not end here, “The Struggle Continues”, but with every new battle a stronger leader will ALWAYS rise.

Bolton, Alexander. “Senators See Tide Turning toward Biden After Big Win.” The Hill, 3 Mar. 2020, thehill.com/homenews/senate/485611-senators-see-tide-turning-toward-biden-after-big-win. 

“Politics.” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/section/politics?campaign_id=56&emc=edit_cn_20200408&instance_id=17488&nl=on-politics-with-lisa-lerer®i_id=108714663&segment_id=24381&te=1&user_id=63045bae49624acf2483c8bf624c5d91.

Bruenig, Elizabeth. “Bernie Sanders Was Right.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/opinion/bernie-sanders-campaign.html?auth=login-email&login=email.

“Bernie Sanders: Where He Stands.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/elections/bernie-sanders.