“This [Bernie Sanders’ campaign for President] ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the Crooked Hillary fiasco. The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!” Donald Trump wrote in a tweet Wednesday.
Donald Trump moves fast. President Trump is already fishing for the support of the Bernie Bros’, taking advantage of a fact he knows to be true: Joe Biden is not Sanders supporters’ favorite guy. They are ideological polar opposites. For older Americans, Biden represents a solid, “reliable” Democratic candidate and a comfortable return to traditional politics. For young voters, Biden is five steps away from all the revolutionary change they are hoping for. A sizeable portion of Bernie supporters have always disliked Biden, and since the suspension of the Senators campaign, Bernie bros have not had an easy time accepting the fact that they may have to support Biden.
Of course, most Democrats would be willing to support anyone over Donald Trump, but only 80% of Bernie supporters want to make that compromise. Young Bernie voters are standing their ground on the biggest issues right now — climate change, healthcare — and many think voting for Biden would be counterproductive to the message they’re trying to send to the DNC. What is that message? One Bronx college student, Ekene Okonkwo explained it well. She didn’t want the DNC to take her Democratic vote for granted; she’d vote in four years time, when a new kid like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex is on the block.
Okonkwo and most likely many of her peers won’t, but some young people need to (reluctantly, at least) support Biden in November. While some Bernie supporters may only be looking for a revolution, young Democrats all share the need to “defeat” Trump, as Bernie says. This is the number one goal, regardless of candidate preference — but perhaps this is not enough.
The fact that Biden continues to do well in rural areas Clinton lost in 2016 seems like a positive, but it may bode negatively in terms of winning over more liberal voters. Whether Biden will be doing much to win over the most liberal of Bernie supporters for the general election is unclear. The Biden campaign might assume that just enough will support him to win, but they may have a harder time getting those votes than we think. One thing is for sure: Neither the DNC or Biden should be taking Bernie supporters’ votes — or young people’s votes — for granted.
All of this begs the question, is Joe Biden really that “safe”? If the next Democratic runner up’s base is finding it difficult to offer their support, is he really the strong and reliable candidate we thought he was? The presence of young people in politics are shaping the Democratic party in a way we have not seen before, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
