What’s Fueling the Bernie Sanders Flame?

January 25th, 2016

Awake Goy

Presidential candidate is rising in the polls.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign has caught on fire over the past several weeks. And there are many questions being raised about this phenomenon. What’s going on here? What’s fueling the Bernie flame? Some believe that the flame is fueled by Sanders’ passion for the causes that he has fought so hard for over many years: universal health care, affordable college education for all, curbing wall-street abuses, upgrading the minimum wage, tighter regulation on big banks, protecting the interest of the working class, overhauling election campaign financing. In a real sense, they see Sanders as being idealistic and clear about what he wants to achieve; that he doesn’t back down or soften his beliefs to achieve political ends—He is seen by many as a pure liberal.

In a recent interview with a New York Times reporter, Dalton Paget, a 27 year-old insurance agent form Spokane, Washington, attested to this notion—He said: “I like Bernie’s sincerity. He is talking about working toward policies that he’s been championing for a long time.” Paget is typical of the view that the under 45 year-old voter holds of Sanders. The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll shows primary voters in this age favoring Sanders 2 to 1 over Hillary Clinton.

There are similarities between the Sanders surge in this election to that of Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Obama was given little or no chance of winning the democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton until he began to surge in the polls. As Obama, Sanders has captured the enthusiasm of the younger voter. He has been able to raise a large amount of campaign funds through small donations from the average man on the street. He has also made significant use of social media, as did Obama. But, on the other hand, polls show that Sanders has a relatively small support of the minority voters—-Obama commanded a huge percentage of that block of voters.

Does the Sanders flame reflect his likability rather than his electability? The Washington Times reports that some analysts believe this to be the case. They say that Sanders certainly has ridden his socialist agenda to the top of the polls in the Democratic presidential contest and in a potential head-to-head matchup with the Republican candidate, but this is due to his popularity and does not translate into votes on election-day. Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, stated of Sanders: “When he wins polls, it’s because they like him better. They see him as more honest and more authentic than Secretary Clinton.” Jim Manley, democratic strategist, who apparently does not see Sanders as being electable, said this of the Vermont Senator: “His views are just too far out of the mainstream, I think, for many Americans.”

Bernie Sanders himself speaks of his campaign with increasing confidence. He believes that his flame will burn brighter and brighter. He says that his rising poll numbers prove that his ideas are in step with mainstream voters on both sides of the political aisle.