It was a well-timed coincidence that I was able to take my exchange semester to the United States in the midst of the strangest presidential election in years. But while the world is talking about the soundbites of Donald Trump, you’d be hard-pressed to find a student on campus that has not taken notice of the rise of Bernie Sanders.
When most old white men are associated with maintaining the status quo, you might be forgiven if your passing glance at American election results has left you puzzled as to why Sanders, a 74-year-old Jewish man from Vermont, has grabbed the attention of youthful voters across the USA.
Offering a policy platform of democratic socialism – in a country where using that particular …show more content…
I was legitimately ‘feeling the Bern’!” she said.
“Then I just felt prompted. I was thinking ‘You know what? It’s time. This question needs to be asked’. I just looked into Bernie’s eyes and thought that he just had to pick me.”
As you can see in the clip, the reaction to Remaz’s question was thunderous, with the crowd applauding her and Sanders inviting her to share the stage with him, even offering a hug.
“It was raw. Genuine. So unexpected. It was human. It humanised me.”
Sitting down to talk with me in the crowded campus food court, her enthusiasm for the Sanders campaign clearly cuts through the noise. Remaz is the epitome of how young people are mobilised politically when they care enough to act, whichever side of the spectrum they might associate themselves with.
While voting in America is still a choice rather than a requirement, it’s students who have taken the time to be involved that have been the backbone of this political revolution.
However, far from being a ‘true believer’ from the very beginning, the Vermont Senator won her over with his ideas for …show more content…
While the Democratic party offers delegates for all state and territory elections as a proportional outcome to the vote gained, the superdelegates – who represent the establishment of the party – have clearly marked their intentions for Hillary Clinton to go on to win the nomination, putting her into a firm lead overall.
Where Sanders has gained many votes from the public by coming from outside the party system, this has also cost him at the superdelegate level.
Many people that I’ve met during my stay in the United States still complain about the party primary systems not being truly representative of the intentions of the general public, and Sanders said he will try to flip superdelegates away from Clinton in a late bid to win.
After the April 26 primary results, Sanders has a delegate deficit of over 800 to Clinton, and would need a miracle to win the nomination from here. While he has promised in the past to see his campaign run through until the last poll, he may well soon drop out of the race