A Vote For Bernie Is A Feminist Act

[Bubzer]

Bernie Sanders’ victory over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primaries pointed to the overwhelming support Sanders has among young women—Sanders garnered 53 percent of the female vote overall, compared with Clinton’s 46 percent. Among women under 45, Sanders received 69 percent of votes; among women under 30, he got 82 percent.

So what is it that draws young women—women such as myself—to Bernie Sanders? Hillary, after all, is the first viable female Democratic candidate to run for president. Do we not understand the historic significance of this race and the power of representation? Second-wave feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Madeline Albright will suggest we are naïve, or even ungrateful for the hard work done by our predecessors who have paved the way for a woman to run for the highest office in the land. Fear not! Feminism is alive and well among us millennials and has the stamp of our era. We have a hard time rallying behind Hillary because we see her as a part of a political elite that has done the utmost psychological, environmental, and economic damage to this country.

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Bernie Sanders’ record shows that he takes a much more thoughtful and cautious approach to military engagement. He has been criticized for not having enough foreign policy experience, even though he has been in Congress since 1991 and has voted on matters ranging from Cold War policies to military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He believes that military options should be the last option. This viewpoint is refreshing for a generation that can barely remember life before 9/11 and has witnessed the constant and seemingly endless warfare and terrorist threats that followed it.

The bulk of young Bernie supporters are most drawn to his tireless commitment to taking on the big banks and Wall Street. They like that he dares to challenge the economic system. I empathize with my generation, which is well-educated but shackled with debt. The class of 2015 is the most indebted graduating class ever, with debt averaging just over $35,000 per student. The steadily rising amounts of debt are compounded by the precarious nature of the job market. Millennials make up a large part of what development economist Guy Standing calls the precariat: a class “characterized by chronic uncertainty and insecurity.” This loose aggregate of people—sometimes called the 99 percent—are, in Standing’s view, “united in rejecting old mainstream political traditions.” Bernie’s campaign represents a rejection of the status quo and a plea for something different. When he talks about a political revolution, he is tapping into the anxieties and vulnerabilities of the precariat class. Clinton’s close ties to Wall Street identify her as part of the establishment—to those very institutions that are drowning us in debt and vulnerability.

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2016/02/voting_for_bernie_sanders_is_a_feminist_act.html