If there was ever a wildly understated candidate, it would be Bernie.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a nominee for the 2016 presidential election, is using his campaign to appeal to more than the average middle-aged right or left wing voter. His platform hits areas that are often overlooked and he is grabbing the attention of the voters who ultimately matter the most: Generation Z.
While most news stations are raving over Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi conspiracies and Donald Trump’s raging anti-immigration policies, Sanders is floating from coast to coast, winning the love of voters across the country. He has tackled issues such as racial tension, women’s rights, economic reform and equal opportunity. He is a strong believer in self-promotion and, most importantly, is campaigning for things people actually care about.

One issue that has pushed his campaign forward is his ability to appease and work to rectify the growing racial tension in the country. At the August 8 event in Seattle, Washington, Sanders was due to speak about his campaign and celebrate the 80th anniversary of Social Security. However he was unable to utter a word due to the dozen “Black Lives Matter” protesters who stole the microphone from the senator. Unlike other politicians who would might have thrown security onto the scene or retaliated with verbal force, Sanders stood quietly to the side. He and the event coordinators allowed the protesters to issue a four-and-a-half minute long moment of silence and only stepped in when they were unwilling to finish their protest. He was later endorsed by civil rights activist Cornel West on Twitter, who said that “he is a long-distance runner with integrity in the struggle for justice for over 50 years.” Sanders has reached out in collaboration with the BLM community and plans to create a partnership with civil rights communities and change history through racial comradery. Not only is he winning the love of the black community, but he is further working to strengthen the unity in America.

According to The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, there is a 22 percent wage gap between men and women and there is a 36 to 46 percent wage gap between white men and women of color, despite the fact that women comprise 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force. Sanders is in favor of pay equity and wants to give working women the pay they deserve by signing the Paycheck Fairness Act into law, which will end wage discrimination based on gender. He also wants to raise the minimum wage rate in order to provide working adults with a proper living wage. There have also been proposals to defund Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides services such as birth control, women’s health care, abortion and sexual identity assistance. Most republican nominees support defunding Planned Parenthood because their pro-life ideals make all women’s abortions seem like everyone’s business. However Sanders believes that the decisions about a woman’s own body and livelihood should be made by the woman herself, not her government. Sanders wants to make women’s rights a more talked-about issue in the country by fighting for topics like pay equity and reproductive freedom. He also wants to abolish any laws dealing with gay marriage and abortions in order to put the issues of the people where they belong: back to the people.

All we hear on the news nowadays is money, money, money. And there is no doubt that there is way too much money in politics. We have incredibly wealthy families dishing out millions of dollars to “buy” their candidate of choice, thus keeping community-funded candidates such as Sanders from flooding the news stations. The Koch brothers, for example, are the second-wealthiest family in America. They plan to spend nearly $900 million to benefit this election, launching one or two Koch-approved candidates soaring to the top of the political food chain. This can only be oligarchy, not democracy. Sanders swears by being funded solely by himself and the donations he receives from supporters. He believes that corporations like Citizens United should be abolished in order to have fair campaigns because “buying politics” has gone too far. When big-money corporations like oil industries and Wall Street bankers are pouring unlimited, undisclosed amounts of money into political campaigns, voters are blinded by the numbers and see only who corporate giants want us to see. Sanders wants to put an end to a country “of the billionaires, by the billionaires and for the billionaires” and is an honest example of self-success.

Not only does Sanders want to clean the money out of Washington D.C., but he wants to create a prosperous citizenship from fast-food workers to CEOs nationwide. A primary issue in America today is the steadily disappearing middle class and how minimum-wage workers should not be living in poverty. Equal treatment is important to Sanders, and he wants to create fair treatment by starting at the top. The wealthy and large corporations should be responsible for paying taxes just as everyday citizens do. Sanders wants to create progressive taxes for the top 0.3 percent of Americans who inherit more than $3.5 million and bring overseas industries back to the United States, thus making it impossible for corporations to avoid paying American taxes and in turn, create more American jobs. Sanders wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020 and invest $5.5 billion in a program that will create jobs for American youth. On top of this, he wants to invest $1 trillion in restoring crumbling roads, bridges, railways, airports, public transit systems, ports, dams, wastewater plants and other infrastructure needs. These two investments are a heavy chunk of money, of course. Yet they will supply Americans with over 2 million jobs, thus putting more people to work and less people on the (newly built) streets. Sanders also plans to make all public college tuition free. He believes that quality education should be available to all who want to earn it and young people should not begin the next chapters of their career in crippling debt. He cares about those who make less than six figures per year and wants to be sure that all people have equal opportunity for success. This is a country that should be united by the people, not run by big-money corporations.

The only issues that may hinder Sanders’s campaign are that he is simply too old and too smart. Who Sanders chooses as his running mate is a heavy topic because of the actual instance that he might pass away in office. However with longevity growing more common, a 75-year-old president is not too big of an issue, according to research psychologist and former editor-in-chief of “Psychology Today,” Dr. Robert Epstein. When he spoke with seniorplanet.org about older candidates running for office, Epstein said that “experience is a great teacher” and older candidates are perfectly okay — even better than younger candidates — as long as they show no signs of senility.

Now let’s talk about socialism. Sanders openly expresses himself as a democratic socialist, which may seem scary on the outside, but is what this country actually needs. Democratic socialism, or to some, “Nordic capitalism,” is not an authoritarian dictatorship that was made famous by Adolf Hitler. Sanders has alluded to countries such as Finland, which is ranked on CNN’s top ten happiest countries in the world and also practices democratic socialism. He practices the ideology that a country should allow certain responsibilities — universal healthcare, job security, income equality and fiscal reformation — to be handled solely by the government. This then leaves issues such as reproductive freedom and marriage equality to the citizen, not the senator. This ensures that the right issues are handled by the right people and freedom is truly, truly free. If Americans practiced the type of government that Sanders has planned, maybe we too can be a genuinely happy, thriving country.

It is time to step away from producing a money-hungry
empire and give the billionaires a rest. Sanders wants to turn
the country around and create an environment in which
young adults can thrive when we are passed the political torch. Even if Sanders loses the election, he will have set a standard of progression and reform that will carry over to 2020. He has created a movement of national concern that has young people talking about things that actually matter
and his influence will ensure that America at least begins to
move in a positive direction.The best part, however, is the fact
that this is all powered by young positivity and a growing passion
to recreate a happy, prosperous country. If Sanders is elected president in
2016, the United States should expect only progression and a greater
future for the next generation. It is time to #FeelTheBern.

To learn more about Bernie Sanders and/or donate to his campaign,
visit www.berniesanders.com.