From single-payer healthcare to higher taxes, there are almost no policy issues where I agree with Bernie Sanders. But there is one reason I respect the 12 million people who have voted for him in the Democratic primary: They refused to let Hillary Clinton’s gender sway them to her side.
At least to conservatives, liberals seem to engage in a lot of identity politics, loosely defined as the idea that everyone in a certain demographic (race, gender, class, etc.) should all think the same way. For example, abortion is a women’s health issue, and all women should be pro-choice and vote Democratic.
With that kind of thinking seemingly prevalent, you’d expect liberals to oppose the old, white man running for president and fully embrace the potential history of the first female president. But plenty of female liberals support Sanders anyway. Why?
I talked to a friend of mine from my days as an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, Gabrielle Cornish (now a Ph.D. student in musicology at the same university), to find out why she voted for Sanders in the New York primary.
It wasn’t just about free college and free healthcare, despite the stereotype that’s out there. “I liked how Bernie was the least hawkish of the candidates, in terms of military spending and boots on the ground,” Cornish told me. “He and Hillary are actually much more similar than a lot of people give them credit for,” and their differences on national defense are what swayed her to Sanders.
Cornish also said Sanders’ approach to institutional racism and sexism resonated with her more, referencing Sanders’ opposition to mandatory minimum sentences for crimes, especially nonviolent offenses.
Cornish said healthcare and student loans were important issues to her, but mostly as reasons to support Democrats over Republicans, rather than one Democrat over another. “I found the similarities between Bernie’s approach and Hillary’s approach to those things to be more similar,” Cornish said. Evidently, both Sanders’ tuition-free college plan and Clinton’s debt-free college plan are sufficiently liberal.
Sanders’ success is an important reminder that many liberals do think critically about policy issues, and aren’t just voting based on their gender, race or income. Conservatives should remember many liberals are thoughtful, nuanced voters, despite the classic joke that any liberal over 35 doesn’t have a brain.
Perhaps Sanders’ success with younger voters is a sign they think more critically on policy issues than older liberal generations do. After all, it was 82-year-old Gloria Steinem who implied young female Sanders’ supporters only like him to attract boys. And it was 79-year-old Madeleine Albright who implied that women who don’t support Clinton are going to hell.
Cornish, who said she has the utmost respect for Steinem and Albright, said those comments neither emboldened her support for Sanders nor made her re-consider it. “It was a moment to reflect upon the differences between the two candidates, why I was leaning more Bernie, but also, as a young female voter, re-evaluating my approach to issues geared toward female voters,” she said.
Assuming the general election comes down to Clinton vs. Donald Trump (vs. a number of third-party candidates), a significant number of Sanders supporters say they won’t vote for Clinton. Cornish, however, didn’t hesitate to say she’ll be voting for Clinton. Even if Sanders decided to run third-party, Cornish would vote for Clinton to keep Trump out of the White House.
“I don’t think I would be compromising the vast majority of my values to vote for Hillary,” Cornish said.
Despite the historic nature of her candidacy, many will vote for Clinton because her liberal values and beliefs closely align with them. Although I disagree with those ideas, it’s better than voting for someone just because of their gender.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
