The failure to unite

One cannot stop thinking about what is happening today in the Democratic Primary season. The results of last Super Tuesday coupled with what happened in South Carolina show that the establishment is just as powerful in convincing voters that former Vice President Joe Biden, however limited his ability to articulate what he stands for, is their candidate. And the voting public, especially those over 45, is so misinformed or concerned about what the media has portrayed Bernie Sanders as a socialist that voter turnout favored the status quo. It also didn’t help the Sanders campaign that so many young adults didn’t vote. The double standards of many of our young adults have cost the Sanders delegates.

When we look at all the rallies Senator Sanders attends, thousands attend compared to the Biden campaign. The excitement of those crowds has brought Sanders’ campaign to where he should be. But, the voter turnout on Super Tuesday never materialized to put Senator Sanders in the lead. One of the biggest concerns is the fact that so many younger voters never bothered to cast their ballots. It could be that the students of more than 65% of them attend schools in other states in which they are registered. Having talked to some of those college students who are registered voters in one state but attend school in another, there are some concerns that are very troubling. Many of these young adults remain uninformed, not very knowledgeable about the political process, and, believe it or not, think their vote won’t matter. In some respect that may be true. But, every vote counts contrary to what these young people think.

Not only many of the younger generation, but also many registered voters still fall in line with the status quo. They continue to believe that Senator Sanders is an inveterate socialist. That is not like that. We forget that every industrialized nation has incorporated capitalism with socialism into their economies. The United States is one of these industrialized nations. Much of the voting public, especially those of college age and young adults, are middle class and too used to the status quo of their everyday lives. They sense that Senator Sanders is the one who will change his routine. When, in fact, the policies and reforms he is trying to implement will only make people’s lives better.

So what happened on Super Tuesday is a combination of the Establishment in the DNC leading to a resurgence of the status quo candidate, Joe Biden. Now, Bloomberg is helping Biden’s chances by not only endorsing Biden, but now funneling millions of dollars to make sure Sanders is left out. Combine this with the fact that so many younger voters who were left out of these primaries have misconceptions about the kind of socialism associated with Sanders. And, the fact that so many students who are eligible to vote go to school in other states makes it very difficult to vote in your registered state.

What is needed now to recharge the Sanders Campaign is to appear on national television and do what Ross Perot did in 1992. What Ross Perot did and what Senator Sanders should do is educate the American public on the merits of his agenda and how to pay for programs like free college tuition, Medicare for all, the restoration of Social Security, and, in essence, what the Ten Articles of Confederation of National Economic Reform will do for the country and the world. In this way, much more of the voting public will be educated on the merits of reform and better understand how socialism can coincide with capitalism.