Bernie Sanders influences young adult’s political views
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of the Democratic party seems to appeal to a large number of students based on social media posts. With social, economic, immigration, and education issues in mind, posts on Twitter and Instagram suggest that Sanders may have captured the young people’s hearts.
Sanders’s tweets such as “We must address the lingering unjust stereotypes that lead us to label black youths as ‘thugs’ and ‘super-predators,'” directed towards a certain audience is definitely shown across the social media board. That’s not to say that there aren’t other opinions on Sanders, but from the public’s viewpoint there seems to be a rise in Sanders supporters among teens.
Sanders, a 74 year old man running for president in the Democratic party, lately has his supporter numbers continuously increasing. With issues such as closing the wages gap, creating jobs, protecting the environment, and providing healthcare, Sanders has successfully increased his numbers to 33 percent compared to his top competitor Hilary Clinton at 43 percent. Now the question still stands if Sanders can beat Clinton, and based on social media posts, Sanders has a following on Twitter.
“I see his tweets all the time on my timeline, and not because I follow him just because so many people retweet his tweets or his parody account tweets, so I could definitely see how his supporters numbers have grown with all those posts,” sophomore Rachel Houle said.
“Too many people have suffered and too many people have died for us to continue to hear racist words coming from major political leaders,” said Sanders via twitter. Racism is a very clear issue for Sanders, and appeals to a lot of students based on recent events.
This tweet is just one of many that expresses one of Sander’s political sides. With a total of 9,100 favorites and 5,900 retweets just for one tweet, it is clear that his followers have shown publically how much these points mean to them.
Loading ...“I see him all the time on my Twitter, sometimes Instagram. Like the legalization of marijuana and racism things are mostly, or environmental issues like animals and global warming, things like that,” said junior Linzie VanderHeyden.
With such a rise in liberal stands, at approximately 24 percent, Sanders has some liberal points that seem to be headed mainstream. Still trailing conservative numbers at 34 percent there is still a big difference.
“I like him he’s got good points and he definitely knows what audience he’s talking to, like I think a lot of younger people like him more so than older people,” senior Briana Momchilovich said.
Some popular statements across the social media board simply state that Sanders refers to himself as a “democratic socialist”. With the only definition set as a democratic political system matched with socialist economic system, it seems to be setting off quite a storm all over Twitter and Facebook.
“I have no idea what democratic socialism is, but it definitely sounds interesting,” Houle explained on the topic. She, like many others is confused of the term. For some unknown reason the media can’t get enough of Sanders’s inventive ways and strive for new things.
With the media on his side, Sanders seems to be starting a fan base over Twitter and Instagram. This could definitely change his campaign but if that’s good or bad is still unknown. This “democratic socialist” has his numbers rising and only the future can tell what’s in store for the presidential candidate.
Grace Donner • Jan 8, 2016 at 9:33 am
Well done. Nice job on expressing how sanders appeals from many different ways that he uses to get to his followers and their viewpoint on it too. Also the intro was a helpful explanation of what he stands for.
Megan McGuire • Jan 6, 2016 at 8:08 pm
I like the angle you took on Bernie Sanders. Since his political campaign is so huge it was interested to read just how media influences his popularity. I liked reading Stillwater student’s opinions on it to, it made the issue more local. I also liked how examples of Sanders’ tweets were used to explain his views.
Shad Kraftson • Jan 2, 2016 at 5:38 pm
The article does a good job of taking a national issue and making it relevant to the SAHS student body. It has a narrow focus and a clear angle. A couple of the statistics were a little unclear and lacked sources but overall it was a well written article. Clearly, Bernie has gained popularity among younger voters. More research and a clearer explanation of “democratic socialism” would have been nice. I disagree that the media is on Bernie’s side because he constantly complains about getting too little attention.