Award-winning student news since 1978

The Brookhaven Courier

Award-winning student news since 1978

The Brookhaven Courier

Award-winning student news since 1978

The Brookhaven Courier

Sanders slides into second place part 1

By Ravin Lee

Art Director 

By Jubenal Aguilar
By Jubenal Aguilar

Senator Bernie Sanders has been ‘Bern-ing’ up the polls, but some voters question whether he can
get the job done. Part two of a three-part series in which The Courier profiles a presidential hopeful.

As a member of the next generation of the working class or possibly a future leader, I think it’s high time the U.S. elects a president more accepting of sexual orientation, and gender equality and eliminates the racial barriers that sadly still exist in this country.

Though President Barack Obama and the Supreme Court have taken steps in that direction, there is still a lot of work left for the next U.S. president. Bernie Sanders is the perfect man for the job. Sanders declares himself a democratic socialist at a time when many shy away from the idea of a socialist president or government.

Socialism refers to a theory of social organization that advocates community ownership and regulation of the means of production, distribution and exchange in a community, according to Webster’s New World Dictionary. Programs like Social Security, Medicare and food stamps are just a few examples of socialism in our government. Who is to say this country is not ready for a democratic socialist president?

During an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” conservative social and political commentator Ann Coulter said: “Sanders cares about the American middle class. Hillary Clinton doesn’t. She is like the elected Republicans, only cares about the chambers of commerce.”

The rarest quality to find in any political candidate is consistency. That’s not a problem with Sanders. Since the beginning of his political career in 1981, he has had the same stance across the board, pushing for equality for all, free tuition at public colleges, universal healthcare.

“We can create the greatest nation that anyone has ever seen,” Sanders recently said at a speech in Denver. “If we stand together – if we do not let people divide us by race, by whether we were born in America or born in Mexico, whether we are gay or whether we are straight.”

It is a shame that racial inequalities continue to exist after all this country has been through in the last 154 years. “It is not acceptable that young African- Americans are walking down a street in a city in America and are being brutalized by police,” Sanders said in Denver. “That has got to end.”

As a college student considering transferring to a university, I wonder how I will pay for classes when I transfer. Sure, I can apply for scholarships, but will I get enough to pay for the next two to four years of school?

Sanders has introduced legislation to eliminate college tuition. He also said, as president, he would fight for legislation that “will make every public college and university in America tuition free.”

Wanz Dover, a Brookhaven College student, said Sanders is for everyone having a right to higher education without paying an arm and a leg. Sanders said there are thousands of qualified bright people in this country who wish to go to college but cannot do so because they lack the money.

“We don’t want you to [not] become scientists or engineers or doctors or nurses because you just do not have the money,” Sanders said.

“Sanders’ views are the views of the average American, and that’s why people connect with him,” Dover said. If the U.S. could have a healthier, more educated society, we could have a stable economy. And a stable economy will mean a brighter future for college students the world over.

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