Bernie Sanders: The hero for Progressive Students
Bernie Sanders has worked in government for years, but he didn’t make a splash with people until the last two years when he was a presidential candidate. After losing the Democratic Presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton, Bernie has continued his fight for equality and justice for everyone. As a politician who takes Progressive views on serious issues, Bernie has become a hero among many students and fellow Progressives across the country.
Since Donald Trump became President, Bernie has been working non-stop as he resists and fights back against the discriminatory and horrific policies being proposed and accepted. During his run for president, college students across the country including UMBC students, were extremely active in supporting him and encouraging others to do the same.
In the UMBC Breezeway students would hand out pamphlets and try to engage with students about politics and the policies Bernie wanted to put into place. As the presidential race continued on and Bernie eventually lost, these same students then began to encourage others to vote for Hillary Clinton due to the support she received from Bernie. There was a lot of controversy surrounding Hillary’s nomination and even with Bernie’s support students were still not willing to support her.
While some students chose not to support Hillary and not pay attention to politics anymore, others renamed themselves Progressives and stood behind supporting Bernie. UMBC Progressives was born and a Facebook group was started. Soon these online posts and talks were turned into meetings where students would get together every few weeks and discuss recent political events and issues.
Meetings where students can talk about how to fix issues and how to stop policies from being enacted by going to town meetings and contacting your local representatives. As Bernie continues his fight for more Progressive policies so do students around the country. Bernie has been teaming up with government officials around the country and recently began his multi-state tour outlining his progressive plans.
For my fellow Progressive students and I, it’s important that we stay up to date on these policies and important social justice issues within our own country and around the world. Before this election, I never felt connected or cared about politics or any issues. I would have an opinion, but it wasn’t until I realized how these issues seriously affect someone else’s life that I started to do something about it.
Students gathering on college campuses to discuss politics and put plans into action is a step in the right direction for our future political landscape and everything politics affects. More schools should actively be encouraging students to create groups and become active members just like UMBC has been able to do.
Bernie Sanders was the catalyst behind UMBC students creating a group and he continues to show us on a day to day basis why he earned the support of millions of people.
