Page 6
Opinion
The Clarion \ April 15,2020
With Sanders out of the race,
Democrats must stick together
By Eleanor Flannery
staff Writer
Last Wednesday, Bemie Sanders announced
the suspension of his 2020 presidential campaign.
I was disappointed, to say the least, like many
others who supported Bemie. I’ve been a fan of
his since he first announced his candidacy, when
he first ran back in 2015.
He was the first politician to get me interested
in politics. He inspired me; he opened my eyes
to the terrible injustices many Americans face
on a daily basis. I believed in his vision of a
better America, and desperately wanted to see
him be president.
With that being said, and as bitter as it was for
me to watch Sanders’s announcement, I can’t say
that I was shocked that his campaign came to
a close. He was, after all, polling substantially
behind Joe Biden, and, to me, his resignation
seemed inevitable. The party was against Bemie
from the start, and they simply were not going to
give him the support he deserved. While young
voters were certainly behind Bemie, it was never
going to be enough.
Bernie has since endorsed Joe Biden for
Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden during a break at the Democratic presidential
primary debate on Feb. 25, 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina. Following his withdrawal from the race last
week, Sanders on Monday formally endorsed Biden for the Democratic nomination for president.
president and has encouraged his supporters to
get behind the former vice president as well,
since Biden is the presumptive nominee to ran
5
I'
orr
y
, ki d
roHiha
in "four
a
See yoi
years whehT
o'f yo
stone!
— Sam HIpp
against Donald Tmmp. It will be difficult for
me to vote for Joe in November, but I know
it’s the best decision I can make to ensure I
do everything in my power to prevent Donald
Tmmp from becoming a two-term president.
A lot of Bernie supporters do not share this
sentiment.
I recognize that it is hard for such staunch
supporters to commit to voting for Joe, but,
like me, they have to realize it is in their own
best interests to do so. The shared goal among
most democrats, if not all, is defeating Donald
Tmmp. So how does that happen? It happens
by voting for the most viable candidate in the
general election. Like it or not, it’s looking like
it’s going to be Biden.
We cannot have a repeat of 2016; if democrats
(especially young voters and Bemie supporters)
sit this election out, Tmmp will have another
four years in the White House. We need to unite.
The “never Joe’’ people need a reality check. Is
he the ideal democratic candidate? Of course
not! But he’s all we’ve got left.
The priority is getting the, as Bill Maher put
it, “Tangerine Nightmare” out of office. If anti-
Tmmp voters and democrats can’t unite over a
candidate, then they can kiss that idea goodbye.
And I’m not saying voters should fall slave to a
single party, but I think it is clear that one bad
candidate is a hell of a lot worse than the other.