Sadly, the presidential election is not a game of how far left America can lean.
While many of my friends are over the moon for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, I don’t yearn for the Bern. I was supposed to be excited, transfixed even, by Sanders’ appeal. He spent decades as a critical voice working within D.C. fighting against money in politics and for health insurance for all Americans. And then it all fell apart. I realized I’m not here for the Vermont Velociraptor’s nonsense that threatens Democrats controlling the White House for another four years.
A lot is at stake in the upcoming presidential election with potentially four of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices slated for retirement. Replacing these justices could set the Supreme Court in a progressive direction for the next generation.
Overturning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Shelby County v. Holder and other conservative decisions should be a top priority for progressives. Changing the makeup of the Supreme Court makes this presidential election even more consequential.
Progressives do not fare as well in Congress. Democrats have a reasonable chance of retaking the Senate in 2016, but the House will likely remain Republican because of gerrymandering throughout the next president’s term. Democrats will have the opportunity to retake the House of Representatives after congressional districts are redrawn after the 2020 Census.
There is one group who is excited about Sanders besides progressives: Republican strategists like Bill Kristol. Republicans are hoping Hillary Rodham Clinton will waste money and resources fending off Sanders to prove her ideological purity, leaving her more vulnerable in the general election.
Clinton has a lot to lose by moving to Sanders’ left. In June Gallup poll examined the personal and political characteristics about presidential candidates. Among these, a candidate who identified as a socialist gained the lowest support with 47 percent of voters willing to consider voting for a socialist candidate. In the general election, any Republican will tie Clinton to Sanders’ socialism, and it could cost her.
Placing all of our chips on Sanders to win would be a gamble for low-income people, LGBT people and people of color who would benefit from any Democrat in the White House. In August, a Gallup poll found Clinton enjoying an 80 percent favorability rating among black voters compared to Sanders’ 23 percent.
It’s no coincidence most of Sanders’ supporters are educated, white progressives. After Sanders’ home state of Vermont, Iowa and New Hampshire have the largest shares of white liberals of any state in the United States, according to Five Thirty Eight.
Not surprisingly, Sanders has huge leads in both of these states according to a September CBS’ News poll, beating Clinton by 22 percent in New Hampshire and 10 percent in Iowa.
Sanders isn’t running to be president of the United States, he’s running to be the president of progressive America. Wealthy progressives can afford to support a Sanders candidacy because they don’t have as much to lose if a Republican wins the White House.
We can’t afford to lose the direction our country is moving in. President Barack Obama moved our country’s conversation to the left. Republicans now have to run on taking away the health insurance of millions of Americans, reinstating the ban on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and other untenable positions.
Clinton can continue to move our country in this direction. It may be frustratingly slow at times, but it made our country better.
I want the same things Sanders does: to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, eliminate money from politics and refom our healthcare system to a single-payer system. Maybe one day our country will be able to elect someone like Sanders.
Clinton will help America get to a place where we can elect someone like Sanders as an executive — and our country will be a better place for it.
Michael Beyer is a 22-year-old political science senior from New Orleans. You can reach him on Twitter @michbeyer.