Why Challenging the Establishment Candidates Is Important in 2016

The opinion polls are predicting another bland fight for President in 2016, where we’ll see a procession of the established names with the established party policy. Hillary Clinton is, predictably, polling way over a majority of Democrat voters, while Jeb Bush looks like the frontrunner in the pack of generic GOP members running for the ticket.

However, there are small uprisings on both ends of the two party system. The case currently in the public eye is that of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is the longest serving independent Senator. In early polls, Bernie was getting ratings below the 1% mark, however at the time of writing, he was reaching 15–16% in similar polls. The key to this is simple, grassroots politics. Bernie Sanders has been the first to truly embrace the internet in a presidential campaign, he has not only used it to his advantage, he has made it his stomping ground. From Reddit AMAs, to his campaign website, to crowdfunding and merchandise, Bernie has used the internet to attract the crowd he can win over easiest, the young left wing. The democratic socialists have finally found their man, and he’s running in the most one-sided primaries for a long time.

However, Sen. Sanders is not letting this fact get to him. Not only is he the alternative to Hillary, but he’s more confident and more personable. When asked if he would consider being Hillary’s running mate, his answer was fast and witty. “Would she be interested in being my vice president?” And he’s gaining even faster than the polls may signal. In a meeting in the 240 person town of Kensett, IA, he managed to fill the community center with 300 people. However, the most astonishing fact about this may not even be the numbers, it’s the dedication Sanders has taken to visit a 240-strong Iowa town, which Hillary has yet to go near to. A few days earlier, he attracted 700 people to a rally in Davenport, a colossal amount in comparison to Martin O’Malley’s 50 in the exact same spot. It’s clear that someone has the momentum in the Democrats, and it isn’t Hillary.

Meanwhile, the GOP has their own version of Bernie, and he’s the son of a household name. Senator Rand Paul is a rare breed of Republican, the hesitant libertarian, believing in minimal government intervention on most issues, barring those of same-sex marriage and abortion, on religious grounds. This may seem to echo the views of his father, Ron Paul. Sen. Paul is much closer to the front of his party’s primaries, generally sitting at around the 8–10% mark, the general edge of the front pack, even occasionally being the frontrunner himself. And by Republican standards, Paul is much more marketable to the youth of today’s America, opposing the PATRIOT act, even attempting to filibuster it’s renewal last month (despite the support being enough to stop him at any point), and supporting the legalisation of marijuana, something constantly popular with any youth group.

Paul has also had great luck with fundraising, raising a whole $1 million on day 1 of his campaign, albeit $0.5 million less than Bernie’s day one total. He’s trying to win over the internet crowd too, with winning fan designs on t-shirts, and posters of dogs holding American flags alongside his campaign slogan being sold on his campaign store, along with other, slightly less bizarre items. (also, they have a weird testimonial for their fashion line saying: “When you wear the Rand Brand, you look good and stand for something bigger than all of us..liberty. Thomas Jefferson would be proud.” Although he’d probably hate your campaign store, Rand.) He’s getting endorsements from all over the shop too, Sarah Palin (ex-VP nominee), Mitch McConnell (Senate Majority Leader), Alex Jones (owner of Infowars), Ralph Nader (highest ever 3rd party candidate, for the Greens), and even Nigel Farage (leader of Eurosceptic party United Kingdom Independence Party).

At the end of the day, the status quo is fine for some people, in which case, vote for Clinton or Bush. But for many, they just accept it, and don’t really support it, more just hold it up. Challengers like Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders are for those people. But, at the end of the day, if a challenger wins, the status quo will just follow them, and in 4 years time, we could be having this exact conversation again. But then, we may well be hyping up Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton instead.