Categories: OPINION

The Voice is feeling the Bern

“When we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win.”

– Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders

Along with this edition’s primaries package, we, as a student newspaper, wanted to take the opportunity to endorse a candidate of our own. While we wanted to provide information about each candidate still in the running, we also wanted to let our readership know where The Voice stands on the candidates. Although we encourage any vote placed for a candidate other than Donald Trump, our publication stands behind the voice of our cohort – we want Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. And who does the majority of young voters want? Sanders.

2016’s presidential campaign has been an unusual one. With no emerging front runner from the get-go, the race left room for unconventional candidates to take center stage. While this has a severe downside on the GOP side of the campaigns, it has also given other norm-breaking candidates, like Sanders, the chance to reach the voters. And the young generations have heeded his call.

Sanders is viewed as the “every man’s president.” Our generation, the millennials – with as bad of a rap as we get – have watched the generations that precede us, and seen the errors of inequality, ecological ignorance, and imbalanced wealth distribution. The foundation of Sanders’ campaign is built on the very issues that the youth vote wants to see addressed.

With the national student debt toppling trillions of dollars, Sanders is calling for free tuition at public colleges and universities. While some may be skeptical that this can be achieved, he mentions that about a century ago, some people said that working class and low-income children deserve to also get a free education – referring to first through twelfth grade.

“The world has changed. This is 2016. In many ways, a college degree today is equivalent to what a high school degree was 50, 60 years ago,” said Sanders in the recent Democratic debate in Milwaukee. “So, yes, I do believe that when we talk about public education in America, today, in a rapidly changing world, we should have free tuition at public colleges and universities. That should be a right of all Americans, regardless of the income of their families.”

This is an issue particularly community college students can resonate with. We ask ourselves, “What are we doing after this? How are we going to afford university tuition?” For some, that’s what keeps them from continuing their education. By having a more educated workforce, it would ultimately improve the economy and the overall well-being of the nation. This is what Sanders stands for.

He speaks for those whose voices go unheard; voices that get lost amongst the noise of billionaires counting their cash. And that’s another thing – Sanders doesn’t accept donations from those billionaires responsible for contributing to income inequality.

He’s received more than two million individual contributions to his campaign, more than any other candidate in history. If that’s not a campaign that is actually working for the people, then we don’t know what is.

If you’re looking for a candidate with a consistent voting history, authenticity, and a sincere concern for where this is country is headed, we encourage you to look to Sanders.