It seems like a day doesn’t go by where I don’t see a Bernie Sanders sticker somewhere. It’s plastered to someone’s windshield; it’s carelessly blowing away down the street. "Vote for Bernie.' 'Feel the Bern.'" This reminds me of a kind of religious revival. It’s as if a new messiah has come into existence. This Democratic Socialist from Vermont is our undeniable, indisputable savior. And the excitement I sense radiating from my fellow students is palpable. This election feels like a unique and different animal. In that sense, I think the Sanders campaign has been a positive development. I think it’s a wonderful thing that millennials are becoming involved in the political process.
However, that’s about where my excitement ends. I have not felt the bern, and I’m not sure if I will. Why might this be, you ask? Why is it that I am hesitant to support a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage, or universal health care, or free college tuition? I think my reasons for this are quite simple. To be blunt, the goals that Sanders is pursuing are not politically feasible in this country. Sure, on its face, a fifteen-dollar minimum wage sounds like a great idea. I work a minimum wage job. It would certainly benefit me. But, consider the fact that France, which has one of the highest minimum wages in Europe, also has one of the highest youth unemployment rates. What incentive would a small business have to higher young, new employees if the minimum wage were drastically increased?
Sanders enjoys comparing the U.S. to countries such as Denmark that, he argues, use the government to meet the needs of its citizens more efficiently and humanely than America. But, has anyone stopped to consider that Denmark has a population of only 5.5 million people? Maybe the government can afford a system like universal healthcare because there are less people to cover? Furthermore, even if a single payer system were instituted in America, hindsight should show us that there is little reason to believe this system would be run efficiently. This is the same federal government that has run the Post Office into debt, which is literally one of the only things the federal government is mandated to run in our constitution. This is the same federal government which helps to run the VA, where service members have died in waiting rooms and the backlog is immense.
Again, I am glad that college students and younger people are excited about Sanders. And I am glad that he is challenging the Democratic Party establishment to talk about issues that voters actually care about. These are all good things. However, I think it is important to temper our idealism and optimism with a dose of rationality. Look beyond Sanders’ policy proposals and ask yourself if they’re feasible in this vast country with many differing views. If you believe they are, then, by all means, vote for him. But try to look beyond the campaign rhetoric and consider whether Sanders is actually a viable candidate who can, most importantly, win a Presidential election.
