For the past few weeks, conservative 13-year-old CJ Pearson has been slowly breaking with the current ideologies of the Republican Party. You might recognize Pearson from his YouTube video titled “President Obama: Do you really love America?,” which has over 2 million views.
The young politico has interviewed Republican leaders like Ted Cruz, has been featured on "The Kelly File" numerous times, and even totes an endorsement from Rand Paul on his personal website. Once a die-hard Republican, the "conservative wunderkind" has swung left lately. He has openly opposed the GOP on key issues such as racial oppression and has expressed his distain for leading Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
In the latest turn of events, Pearson has crossed party lines and has chosen to support the most liberal candidate of them all. In an exclusive interview, Pearson told CNN that he has come to "believe Sanders is the best candidate to address racial issues, police brutality and poverty.” In the interview Pearson went on to say that “This election will make a pivotal difference in the future of our nation. If it takes changing your mind to make the right choice as to who should lead our country I am willing to do it. Screw the optics.”
This kind of attitude is exactly what viewers have come to expect from the former conservative poster child. CJ is no stranger to death threats, attacks on social media and plenty of attention from main stream media outlets like "Fox & Friends". Although he is young, Pearson seems to know exactly what kind of backlash he is facing.
Though he has taken a huge step to the left, Pearson is still firmly in the middle. While conservatives may be bashing Pearson in the coming weeks, liberals shouldn’t be too quick to celebrate this as a win. In fact, people on both ends of the aisle should be taking notes.
Our political parties have become so extremely polarized, it is nearly impossible to find anything to agree on. As a consequence, very little gets done in Washington. We can’t even find common ground with friends and family who don’t agree with us, so is it any wonder that our government is a complete joke right now? How can we expect our representatives to work together when we can barely be friends with someone who doesn’t hold the same political views as us? It an ideological war zone out here!
Don’t believe me? Just check out all the hateful rhetoric being flung on the political battle field (Donald Trump takes the cake on that one). I think it’s important to note that although Bernie Sanders may appear too far left for those over in the too far right, he has spent more time as an independent while serving in the U.S. Senate and in the House of Representatives. In fact, he is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history.
We need to give ourselves the permission to entertain opposing viewpoints and the permission to change our minds. We need to think as individuals instead of blindly following our party’s views. It is okay to not agree with everything our party stands for. He is barely a teenager, but CJ Pearson has been more open minded than most adults. We can stay in our corners, with our fists up ready to tear our opponents to pieces but nothing gets don't that way.
You don’t have to agree with everything Sanders says or wants for our country. Pearson certainly doesn’t. But we can’t continue to be so divided as a nation. We definitely cannot allow fear and hateful rhetoric to perverse the sociopolitical sphere. We need a leader that can acknowledge the issues we are facing while also uniting, not dividing us.
So thank you CJ Pearson for reminding us that we are all in this together.
