The other night, my friend asked who I was voting for in the presidential election.
The majority of my political knowledge has been accumulated from a combination of Twitter and the headlining articles on Yahoo and Google. In no way, shape, or form do I feel I could make a legitimate claim about any of the presidential candidates (except Donald Trump). Nevertheless, I felt confident when I told my friend I’d be voting for Bernie Sanders.
“Why?” he rapidly replied.
That’s when I froze. I knew generally why I liked Bernie, but I couldn’t give reasonable arguments as to why he should be our country’s leader for the next four years. After getting scolded by my conservative college peers for not being more informed, I took it upon myself to research my initial gut feeling.
When scrolling through Bernie’s website, I stumbled upon his stances on various political, social, and economical issues. He created 23 main issues that he takes positions on and lists an action plan for each potential change. I compared this to Republican candidate, Donald Trump’s, website. Trump only takes stances on six main issues, including reversing Obamacare.
Bernie takes stances on wealth inequality, college tuition, LGBT rights, and even racial injustice. After reading through each of his positions and what he’s willing to do to make improvements for our nation, I have concluded that my instincts were right. Based off of my opinions, Bernie is the man for the job.
He values the fight for equality for all, including those with disabilities. He understands that the middle class is working way too many hours and not making enough money. He even created an entire plan on how our country can combat climate change.
I like that Bernie cares about Americans from all walks of life. He truly makes an effort (at least based off of what I found on his website) to show that he’s willing to make changes that will serve our entire nation and not just a select group of people.
I am a fairly liberal Californian, so it seems obvious that I would lean towards Democratic candidates. However, I must thank my moderately conservative friend. For if he hadn’t scolded me for being ill-informed, I wouldn’t have known that my gut feeling was a good one!
