[Benjamin F. Alexander]

As I write this post, tomorrow is Super Tuesday, when 14 states are having their Democratic primaries. Tomorrow night, we’ll know a lot more than we do now about where things are headed. We already know that Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar are out. Elizabeth Warren, despite her poor showing so far, is still in. The two frontrunners are Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. And, of course, effective tomorrow, Mike Bloomberg is on the ballot.

One of the big questions is: will there be one candidate who can get a majority of votes on the first ballot? This is significant, because this year, due to a rules change, the first round of voting at the Democratic convention will be just the elected delegates, not the super delegates. If one candidate gets a majority of votes (not just more votes than any other candidate, which is called a plurality, but an actual majority of all the votes cast), then that candidate will be the nominee–without the help of the super delegates. But if no candidate has a majority, at that point the superdelegates get to vote. And what a lot of people are saying is this: If Bernie Sanders gets more delegate votes than any other candidate (a plurality), but then the superdelegates swing the nomination over to someone other than Sanders, there will be hell to pay from the angry Sanders supporters.

But all this is just a preamble. I actually have a question: Why are opinions both for and against Bernie Sanders so extreme and intense? Why is it so hard to find anybody who can talk about Sanders as just one of the candidates? Why do so many people think he’s the only desirable candidate for the Democratic nomination, and why do so many other Democrats consider Sanders a catastrophe? I’m interested in your thoughts. (And please remember, if you have access to the OpenLab site, your thoughts are always welcome, no matter how long ago you were in my class.)

[Aaron Arroyo]

Well professor, I’ll tell you this.

The reason there is no middle ground with Sanders is because of his promises. Sanders has made promises that single to the soul of the young and the poor, such as free medicare, free college and so on. As young students, all of us will become indebted at some point, and Sanders promises to end that. Sanders wants to end that. Also, Sanders promises to eliminate many things that make it difficult for someone poor to live and make many things free. This sings to the poor of America, who feel that paying for so many expenses makes life difficult for them. Because of this, Sanders is loved absolutely by these people.

The reason why people HATE Sanders is because of two main reasons. One, because he identifies as a Democratic Socialist. Now, the word SOCIALIST is in that identification. For whatever reason, this terrifies many Americans, as they conjure up images of an America ruled by cruel communists. Another reason is because despite is the ends he promises, he has yet to provide a means. How will he make college free? How will he make medicare free? How will he pay for ANYTHING he proposes?

Now, why do people think he’s the only desirable candidate to be the Democratic Nominee? Well there are a plethora of reasons. For some, he’s the only one who can beat Trump. For others, he’s the only candidate who isn’t bought and sold. And for others, he isn’t Elizabeth Warren, who many people on BOTH sides of the political spectrum find to be, I quote, “The most insufferable person on that stage.”

Now, why do so many other Democrats consider Sanders a catastrophe? Simple; he threatens them. Think about AOC, she’s a democratic socialist, but because she isn’t the front runner on a Presidential race, no one in her own party goes after he, everyone’s chill with her. Bernie on the other hand? He’s the front runner, and every other Democrat is threatened by this. Everyone’s afraid of losing the nomination to him.

But as it is, there’s only several options now. Warren, Biden, Bernie and Bloomberg are all that remain. And I can guarantee you that if Sanders doesn’t win, then there’s an increased chance Trump will win due to disgruntled Bern-outs trying to sabotage the Democratic nominee as revenge.