Bernie Sanders announced Feb. 19 that he will bewas running infor the 2020 Presidential Election on Feb. 19, 2019, a move that has launched a range of reactions throughout the nation — including at Drexel University.
On campus, students and professors alike have a multitude of opinions on the topic. While some have shown complete support for Sanders’ campaign, others have reservations.
“I think he has a lot of good ideas that appeal to a lot of young people, but [he] is not considering the cost of all those ideas. He has yet to solidify where that money is coming from. Taxing stock market trading, in my opinion, is not going to generate enough revenue to sponsor free tuition,” Ruth Thomas, a pre-junior finance major at Drexel, said.
Mekhala Santebennur, a freshman biology major, also expressed her opinion on Sanders’ campaign.
She said though she likes some of Sanders’ ideas, but he is not an ideal candidate or face for the Democratic Party.
“It will be like Hillary Clinton all over again. He is not a strong enough candidate to go up against Trump in the election,” Santebennur said. “The Democratic Party needs someone young and energetic enough to bring the country back to a middle ground. Right now everyone is very far right or left, and that means nothing gets done.”
Dr. Jack Santucci, an assistant teaching professor of politics at Drexel, said that voters must watch out for two main issues.
“First, will Democratic Party opinion leaders unite behind one of the candidates? Pay attention to endorsements and the tones pundits use when discussing candidates. Second, if opinion leaders do signal some pick, will primary voters follow those cues?” he posed.
To answer some of the questions that many people have about this campaign, Dr. Bill Rosenberg, a professor of political science, provided his analysis of Sanders’ 2020 run and the trajectory of the democratic party.
“In 2020, there may be 15 or 17 Democratic candidates all running, so it won’t be necessarily like it was in 2016 with two people running. There’s going to be many, many more people running, and many of them are going to espouse a number of policy positions that Bernie Sanders actually developed in 2016. So he is in a sense, the intellectual ‘Godfather’ of many of these candidates that are running, and now he’s also competing against them,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg went on to explain that Sanders is not truly a Democratic candidate;, instead, he is more of a Democratic- Socialist and does not necessarily want to be considered a Democrat. But considering the recent passing of a rule by the Democratic National Committeeparty, stating that only Democrats can run, Sanders is going to have to do some “word gymnastics” to call himself a Democratic candidate for president.