For a long time, politics was the same old thing -- one candidate from each of the two major parties faced off, debated and nothing out of the ordinary happened. The usual, standard set of promises were made and a fair share of lies were told. Then came the election of 2016.
This election is really unlike anything we've ever seen before. A "business man" representing the Republican Party and the first woman to ever represent a major party, representing the Democratic Party. Each has their faults, one more so than the other in my opinion, but most people are understandably not happy with either candidate.
However, within all of the making fun of each other, name calling and outright crude comments that we've seen in the debates, interviews and news reports came a candidate unlike any other -- Bernie Sanders. Whether you like him or not, we can all agree on one thing: this man has made history.
Born on September 8, 1941 to Jewish parents, Eli and Dorothy. Eli immigrated from Poland and lost many of his family members in Europe during the Holocaust. He went to New York City public schools for his education, then later went to University of Chicago, after transferring from Brooklyn College after his mother died from a failed surgery at age 46. At the University of Chicago, he was extremely active in the Civil Rights Movement, organizing sit-in protests against segregated housing on campus and even getting arrested in 1962. He participated in the March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963.
When he moved to Vermont, Bernie got involved with the Liberty Union Party and ran for Senate in 1972 and 1974 and governor in 1976, but he didn't win any more than six percent of the vote in each election. He then ran for mayor of Burlington, Vermont and only won by ten votes (so when they say every vote counts, they really mean that).
Bernie has been very consistent with his views. In one of his letters written during his failed attempt to become governor in 1976, he was already campaigning for issues such as LGBTQ rights, environmental protection, women's reproductive rights and healthcare for all.
Now, he is the longest-serving independent, meaning he is unaffiliated with any party, in congressional history, although he identifies as a Democratic Socialist.
On the morning of September 30, 2015, the Sanders campaign announced that they had hit one million online individual contributions, the earliest a campaign has ever hit that many. Less than two months later, on December 17, they announced that over two million individual donations had been made. By April, he had raked in almost seven million individual contributions, each of them less than $30.
Although he lost to Clinton in the primaries, he received over 13 million votes and the support of 46 percent of pledged delegates. This is absolutely incredible, all things considered.
He has shown the world, his doubters especially, that his ideals are not silly or irrational. In a time of chaos, Bernie has given us hope. He has shown a generation of selfish people that you don't need a reason to be selfless. Staying true to your beliefs and having compassion for others is not unrealistic in today's political sphere, and although many other politicians have tarnished that image, Bernie has proven otherwise.
So thank you, Bernie, for all that you have given to us. You have started the political revolution, but we will make sure it lives on.
