The 2016 presidential election candidates have engaged many typically apathetic young voters to “#FeeltheBern.” While the attention given to our nation’s most important election is generally a positive sign, the reason behind the mass Millennial support of Sanders is alarmingly negative.
Senator Bernie Sanders (D-V.T.) has presented socialism to a generation that has typically only known it as a vocabulary word on a history test, if that. But contrary to their parents belief, it seems that Millennials understand and even like Sanders’ socialism.
According to a recent YouGov survey, respondents under 30 were the only group who ranked socialism as more favorable than capitalism.
At the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Sanders crushed his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by 83 percent among young voters, a demographic Clinton has desperately tried to relate to.
The New Hampshire victory for Sanders is only a preview of what Millennials, the largest generation in America today, are thinking about what they want in the next President.
Katie Pavlich, editor of Townhall.com, says that it is Sanders platform of “income inequality” that resonates strongest with Millennials “drowning in student loan debt and those who have sympathy for occupy wall street.”
“The sympathy also comes after 40 years of liberal indoctrination in public education, starting at kindergarten and ending in PhD programs, imposed by Marxists posing as teachers” Pavlich says.
For the young people checking off “socialism” as their system of choice, the question remains, do they even know what that means?
Reports show that the same Millennials who are confident in saying they favor socialism over capitalism don’t support the idea of “a government-managed economy,” and as a whole don’t like government intervention.
When asked to define socialism, Millennials tend to use their own definition as they understand it, which is little to no real historical or factual understanding at all.
Grab the next kid you see sporting a “Feel the Bern” bumper sticker and show him/her the below video, then ask them what they think about the word socialism as it compares to capitalism.
