February Digital Magazine

25 february issue
BERNIE SANDERS
How the Vermont Senator has garnered the support of
Oakton students portia dai | staff writer
VT senator and presidential candidate,
Bernie Sanders
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The last Democratic debate occurred on January 14, the first of six debates to
take place in 2020 before the presidential elections on November 3. Among
the six candidates who qualified for the Iowa debate was Vermont senator,
Bernie Sanders. The senator, who was a contender in the 2016 elections, accumulated
wide-scale support from high school students, and four years later, students still
support Sanders. Here is an interview with Oakton student, Elizabeth Sullivan. (12)
Q: What’s your opinion of Bernie Sanders?
A: I support Bernie Sanders as he is the most
progressive candidate running in the 2020
election. I am a socialist myself, though I
fell into the trap that Warren would be more
electable and I should support her.
Q: How do you think Sanders is different from
Warren?
A: His impeccable record on fighting corporations
and advocating for LGBT rights convinced
me to support him unequivocally. Warren has
backtracked on issues such as universal healthcare
and often uses LGBT support as tokens to
convince people to support he as a progressive.
Q: Do you think Sanders support of the LGBT community
is a major reason students support him?
A: It’s a reason I support him for sure. Young people
want a candidate who fights for their right to public
accommodations and self-expression. And those are
issues that Sanders always pushes, especially when
it comes to the LGBT community.
Q: Did you support him in 2016 as well? Possibly for
the same reasons?
A: I did support him back in 2016. I actually went to
a rally of his for the gubernatorial candidate Tom
Perriello, an opponent of Ralph Northam’s.
Q: How did this experience affect your opinions
of him?
A: He has always stood in solidarity with progressive
politicians and that hasn’t changed since 2016. Being
able to see the grassroots nature of the campaigning
he does really showed me how closely he stands with
the people of this country and of Virginia in particular.
Q: Do you think his approach to the Presidency has
changed since then? (such as in debates)
A:He has only become stronger on the issues that matter
since his first presidential campaign. And I think that sets
him apart from people like Joe Biden who hasn’t expressed
support of many issues until Sanders made them mainstream
Democratic politics. He “wrote the damn bill” (October
debates) and all that in regard to healthcare.
Q: Do you think his ability to bring more issues to the
foreground has helped him gain more supporters this
year?
A: I believe so. As much as the media has attacked him for
his supposed health issues and how far he is from being a
moderate, people have started to see through that and recognize
him as the candidate with the strongest chances of
beating Trump. People are sick of the establishment, and
that’s why Trump was elected back in 2016.
Q: Do you think people support Sanders because of the
possibility of beating Trump or because of his beliefs?
A: Will it’s clear that the Democrats need someone who can
capture that energy and beat Trump at his own game. But as
opposed to more traditional choices, people are passionate
about the beliefs he shares with them. And that’s why he
could beat Trump.
Q: What do you think is his strongest policy that can/
will earn support and possibly help beat Trump?
A: I think that his advocacy for equity in all its forms
(healthcare, wages, and in promoting more people to care
about politics) is what puts him as a favorable candidate
against someone as anti-equity as President Trump.