Hillary Clinton might be the front-runner for the Democratic primary, but the media shouldn’t write off other candidates.
Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, announced he is running for president in the Democratic primary. He is one of two Independents in the U.S. Senate, but he caucuses with the Democratic Party, and party rules allow Sanders to run for president as an Independent in the Democratic primary.
Elections for the 2016 presidency haven’t happened yet, but the media is all but declaring Clinton as the winner.
Salon published an article titled “Bernie Sanders really matters: He doesn’t have to win to build a progressive movement.” MSNBC published an article titled “Why Bernie Sanders matters, even if he can’t win.” U.S. News and World Report published “Bernie Sanders 2016 bid is great for Hillary Clinton.”
In almost every article written about Sanders, news reporters say the most he can do is push Clinton more to the left. In other words, he can’t win. He can only help Hillary Clinton win.
While Sanders might lose the Democratic primary to Clinton, that’s not for the media to decide. The media are treating Sanders like a dark horse candidate who’s no real threat to Clinton, and the more the media treat Sanders as such, the more people will believe it.
There’s no reason why Sanders shouldn’t be treated as a threat. The Elizabeth Warren-loving Democrats should love Sanders because he’s just as progressive. Both Senators want to tackle income inequality and Wall Street. Warren advocated for refinancing student loans, and Sanders proposed making the first two years of college tuition-free for everyone.
Sanders is also against taking corporate money for his presidential race. His biggest financial supporters are unions, while Clinton’s biggest supporters are bankers like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
Clinton’s close ties with Wall Street mean she’ll most likely do as President Obama did and support big banks over the American people. She’s not going to regulate the banks if she’s getting money from them, and we desperately need more banking regulations so we won’t have another recession like the one in 2008.
Sanders, on the other hand, supports American citizens over banks and corporations. His disclaimer at the bottom of his campaign website even says, “Paid for by Bernie Sanders 2016 (not the billionaires).”
Okay, so his disclaimer might make him sound like a crazy old man from the Northeast — which he might be — but his political positions support the American middle class. He wants to raise the minimum wage, make college more affordable, provide universal health care and rebuild our infrastructure.
Franklin Roosevelt proposed some of those things with his New Deal, and that seemed to work out well for America.
The media won’t talk about his policies and the issues he wants to address. They’re only focused on the fact that he’s an Independent who describes himself as a democratic-socialist.
Who in America would vote for socialism? America hates socialism, which is why all of our school systems are privatized, seniors hate Medicare and Social Security and TOPS is Louisiana’s least-popular program among in-state college students.
Maybe Sanders can’t win the Democratic primary, but we’ll never truly know until that day comes. The media are painting a picture that says, “If you don’t vote for Hillary Clinton, you’re throwing your vote away.”
Don’t get me wrong: Hillary Clinton would make a much better president than almost any Republican running or who is planning on running, but Sanders can bring about the reform we need.
Cody Sibley is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Opelousas, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter at @CodySibley.