Anyone following the 2016 presidential race is familiar with the name Bernie Sanders. An independent senator from Vermont, he was originally written off by pundits as a fringe candidate, yet heads are turning as he receives attention all over the country. His grassroots campaign has received popular support throughout the nation, including here at Colorado College, and most notably on social media.
The “Colorado College for Bernie Sanders” Facebook group has close to 100 followers. Its founder, Zoë Frolik, is currently interning at the Sanders campaign but was unavailable for interview. According to active member and junior Sarah Breyfogle, Colorado College for Bernie Sanders has three main goals.
In the short term, the goal is to facilitate communication between Sanders supporters at CC and in the Colorado Springs community.
“There are lots of people who are involved in the CC community but aren’t connected outside,” she said. “And there are lots of Colorado Springs people who are really invested in the Bernie Sanders movement. Getting those people talking would be really exciting.” The organization is also focused on the upcoming debates. The first Democratic debate is scheduled for Oct. 13. However, in states like New York, the deadline to register for the Democratic primary can be as early as Oct. 9 (in Colorado, it’s Jan. 1). This doesn’t leave much time for Sanders to publicize his name before voters miss the primary registration deadline.
“That’s a big goal for us, to get people to know about Bernie, because people who know about Bernie and what he stands for tend to like him.” Breyfogle hopes to achieve this goal with letter-writing and other campaigns to pressure the Democratic National Committee.
However, “the biggest challenge is getting people involved in a meaningful way,” said Breyfogle. She recalls hosting an event on campus where she expected around 15 people to show up, and 175 ended up attending. And while she believes attendance like that is helpful, the organization’s main goal for such attendees is “getting them canvassing; getting them to write letters to the editor and getting them involved in the digital communities so that that kind of attendance can transform into real meaningful numbers at the polls.”
When asked why people should dedicate their efforts to the movement, Breyfogle listed some of the main points of Sanders’ platform, including “universal healthcare, free and affordable college (to be paid for with a Wall Street speculation fee of 0.5 percent stock trades), renewable energy, raising the minimum wage, ending the war on drugs, rebuilding infrastructure, raising taxes on the wealthiest members of society, curbing military spending, expanding social security, and ending police brutality.” When asked how tuition reforms would affect private colleges like CC, she pointed to the increased level of competition she believes it would cause at public universities. Theoretically, this would “hold all institutions to a higher standard and offer students a quality education without charging them ridiculous amounts.”
There seems to be significant momentum for the Sanders campaign around campus. First year Nick Head said of Sanders, “It’s refreshing to see an authentic liberal shake up the corporate-centered ideologies of both parties […] Bernie’s decades of consistency on Wall Street regulation, civil liberties, and the chronic crisis of student debt is simply unparalleled by any of the suits in Washington.” First year Jesse Metzger also agrees with Sanders’ proposals, notably cutting military spending and using the funds on other lacking areas of society, but adds that regarding many economic issues “I just feel without more background knowledge I can’t comment on it yet,” an issue that CC for Bernie Sanders is trying to alleviate.
However, this support of the Sanders campaign is not a universally shared sentiment. While sophomore Raine Kennedy agrees with Sanders’ stance on many of the issues mentioned above, she doesn’t “see most of them as viable options in our country.” To her, “it seems like [Sanders] is pandering to angry liberals and making a lot of promises he won’t be able to follow up on,” an opinion shared by much of the country. While Sanders’ ideas sound appealing to many involved with his campaign, Kennedy refers to the difficulty President Obama had passing and now in protecting the Affordable Care Act, “and Sanders wants to offer universal healthcare? There’s just no way that’s going to happen.”