This is not an article advocating for Bernie Sanders, nor his policies. For a brief moment, I want to remove the politics from his campaign and just strictly talk about the fact that Bernie Sanders shouldn’t be able to exist on the Democratic Stage. In this article, I don’t want you to think of Bernie Sanders as a candidate, but as a symbol for the power of the children of the new millennial. The kids who grew up with slow-starting disasters such as Windows 97 are now in college, completely engulfed by their higher processing iPhone, hashtags, and viral videos.
This group, known as Millennials and Generation Z, was born in the years ranging from the mid 80s to the early 2000s and is now the largest demographic in the US. Historically, this demographic of younger people has had the lowest political participation. The Economist stated in regards to young people being the lowest voting population, “young people do not feel that there is anyone worth voting for.” The Bernie phenomena, however, proves this may be changing. I cannot go onto my Facebook news feed without seeing either a meme involving Sanders from the Democratic debate, or a "Now This Video" about a new accomplishment of Sander’s campaign.
Without spending nearly as much as his opponents, the Presidential candidate has somehow managed to have millions of dollars’ worth of advertising done for free by his supporters. While some argue that this is just a bandwagon social media trend, and that “Feel the Bern” will die out as all internet trends do, Sanders currently shows no sign of stopping and is only 12 points behind Clinton in the polls. This is a 45 point decrease in the gap from when his campaign began in May.
The Bernie 2016 sub-Reddit has over one hundred thousand readers, while the Clinton sub has just over one thousand. According to Forbes, Bernie’s Twitter followers increased by 5% during the Democratic debate, while Clinton’s increased by .3%. And what group uses these social media sites the most? That very same Generation Z and Millennials of 18-29 year olds that statistically care so little about politics. While all these social media numbers don’t truly mean anything in the polls, it at least shows enthusiasm for the candidates and how excited these young people get for them. Perhaps the internet has the power to change young people’s view of politics. For the first time, in a very long time, this group--my group--has the power to have a truly powerful voice in an election.
Even if Bernie isn’t the candidate for you, hasn’t what has surrounded him at least proven that we, the youth, have the power to enact change? I’m not challenging everyone out there to go and “Feel the Bern,” I am simply saying to do something. For too long, I have heard kids in my high school, my dorm room, my political science classes talk about their opinions on issues and offer brilliant insights I had never heard before, only to do nothing about it.
Bernie has proven that the internet, the thing we helped to create and popularize -- where we dominate -- has the power to foster true political change. So let’s actually take a stand and make this, not an election for candidates, but an election for us.
