If you have listened to the news once or twice between December and March, you have probably heard a segment on the Democratic Presidential Primary. During this election cycle, all eyes have been on the Democrats, who have been determined to oust President Donald Trump from the White House. Ever since his inauguration in 2017, the most important goal of the Democratic party has been to ensure this plan comes to fruition. However, from the recent events and dialogue throughout the primary process, it seems to me that much of the party has lost sight of this most important goal.
As a person who falls into the lowest age demographic of all voters and spends much of my time around others my age, it has become apparent to me that the people in my generation do not fully comprehend the gravity of our situation. I believe Trump is the worst president in United States history. Trump is a compulsive liar and spreads misinformation, whether through his speech or tweets, constantly undermining the agenda of various levels of government. He has decided on numerous instances to listen to foreign nationals or adversaries over the United States’ own intelligence agencies, often compromising national security. On top of the extremely long list that I could add to for pages is that, at the time of writing, due to his many poor choices, he has led the country into one of the worst national crises in decades.
While the Democratic field has been narrowed down to two remaining candidates as of this writing, Joe Biden is considered the presumptive nominee. It is nearly mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination, and because of this, I believe Democrats should do everything in their power to coalesce and support their presumptive candidate for the presidency. Many Bernie supporters understandably feel Déjà vu because they are being pressured to vote for a candidate they did not initially support, but for the greater good of the party and the country, it is imperative that they do.
Politics, sadly, is a chess game. In order to succeed, one must take calculated actions and learn from one’s mistakes. 2016 election was the culmination of Democrats’ mistakes. The party felt so sure of their success that they wrote off what appeared to be radical, fringe opposition and failed to truly unify themselves around a candidate.
I might sound like another echo of the “establishment,” but I actually did not support Joe Biden throughout the primary elections. I supported Pete Buttigieg, a candidate who I believe preached peace and unity. Buttigieg’s platform was based on the goal of lessening division in American politics, focusing on issues we can all agree on, and reaching successful compromises on those we can not.
After Buttigieg dropped out, I spent a lot of time contemplating who to support next. I actually agree with Sanders on almost every issue. I believe that universal, affordable healthcare is a human right, that we must take extensive action to save our planet from our own pollution, and that receiving a college education should not entail a lifetime of debt. But in order for our country to solve the issues that will plague our generation for the rest of our lives, we need to solve the biggest issue at present. And for Democrats right now, that is ensuring Trump is never elected to the oval office again. The risks we take by supporting Bernie Sanders, a candidate that a good portion of the country is not ready for, is far too great. This country, or at least what this country used to be, will not survive four more years of Trump, and we cannot allow our mistakes to become complicit in the act.