The title of this article might make one believe that I will be giving reasons to support Bernie Sanders and his policy options. This, however is not the case. Instead, I want to give a different reason to be happy with Senator Sanders running for President that all patriotic Americans can agree with. The argument I present rests on a group that I am a part of, known as “millennials.” Yes millennials. Those pesky politically apathetic youngsters who don’t vote. Until, that is, Bernie Sanders started running for President. Bernie Sanders has received more millennial support than his Democratic primary challenger Hilary Clinton 6 to 1. Many of these voters are registering and voting for the first time. Bernie Sanders is in many ways ending a large amount of voter apathy. Now, I can hear my Republican friends yelling that this isn’t a good thing. These new voters are voting for a self-proclaimed “socialist” which, according to Republicans, is bad. The "S" word aside, bear with me and let me convince even you, dear Republican, that Bernie Sanders’ presidency is a net gain for democracy.

First, let me run a fictional future scenario to prove my point. The year is 2036. Millennials such as myself are for the most part running the country. These millennials range in their ages from their 30’s to even some at the upper end in their 50's. Many of these people have never voted and, just as importantly, many of their children have never voted. Elections hold little importance to them, because they believe that their vote does not matter and they cannot change politics no matter what they do.

A charismatic general, fed up with the current government, recognizes that he is quite popular with his troops and even more liked by the population than the current president. Believing himself to be a more capable leader than the current administration, he does what he believes he must. He takes over the government creating a coup d'état, and now sets himself up as president for life. A few people are upset by these events, yet no one does anything, because they have believed for most of their lives that they can’t do anything to change the government anyway.

This thought experiment may sound implausible to many of us, because, after all, this has never happened in American history. Yet, in countries across the world this has been a regular occurrence. One major example in history comes from France. Napoleon Bonaparte created a military dictatorship in France after the French Revolution. Democracy has proven time and time again to be vulnerable to a military takeover in times when the elected official is unpopular, but especially when the population no longer believes in Democracy enough to participate in it through voting.

America is a young Republic. We haven’t even been around for 300 years. The project of American Democracy is fragile. It has seen major changes. We have and will continue to recognize that we have not always treated everyone equally, yet this experiment has tremendous potential to continue the expansion of human rights as long as citizens of this country continue to believe in it. Bernie Sanders has successfully convinced millions of millennials that there vote matters and that they must vote to help make this world better. Even if you believe their policy positions are misguided, I believe everyone on both sides of the political spectrum would prefer to see democracy healthy and well than risk losing it forever.