As an older person, I am just delighted but amazed at the looks on the faces of the young people I speak to as I am canvassing and campaigning for Bernie. They feel his love, and they love him back. They know why they support him.
This widespread support for Bernie among young people is an astounding phenomenon. Rather thrilling to observe first-hand.
I was part of the JFK generation. I could not yet vote. (We had to be 21 to vote.) But, JFK represented to my generation hope for a future that would flexibly and intelligently respond to the new post-WWII reality. Bernie has as much if not more support among the young people in California than JFK did in the Midwest where I was when JFK was the candidate.
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The young people I meet in my campaigning respond to Bernie. They see him as one who is realistic and aware of the terrible threats that climate change and economic and social injustice represent to their generation and our world. Climate change is a huuuuge deal to them. It is the biggest threat to their futures. Here in California, you can see it changing the climate, the economy and the very face of our landscape.
Immigration reform is an important, top-of-the-list topic in California. Families are divided. If you live in a Latino community as I do, you know that family, being with family, being part of your family, is a big value. Front yards are filled with long tables for big family gatherings. Music, food, drink are shared. It's a family culture. I am an outsider to it, but I love it. Warmth and love exude from the noisy, busy front yards on weekend afternoons. I don't remember seeing that in other parts of America (where I have lived over the years).
In one instance, I knocked on a door in Los Angeles and asked if a young woman was home.. An older woman answered the door. When I said I was a volunteer for Bernie and wanted to speak to the young woman about voting, the older woman turned to a couple of other teenagers in the room and asked, "Is (the person I was asking to speak to) 18?" I realized that my assumption that the older woman was the mother of the young woman I wanted to talk to was wrong. Immigration and other social problems have divided families, left many young people in foster care and difficult living situations.
Bernie is aware of and sensitive to the very social problems that afflict the family structure in many of our communities. Our young people know that he is on their side.
It is not the free stuff that Bernie "promises" that is attracting young people to him. It is his COMPASSION. You can feel that compassion when you watch him speak, when you hear his ideas, when you see his smile. And it is that COMPASSION that has attracted young people to Bernie. The smiles on their faces when they talk about Bernie and think about voting for him testify to the fact that their love for Bernie is the emotional reaction to that COMPASSION. Finally someone who really cares, who really, really cares.
That compassion is not something that Hillary or any other candidate can mimic. It's real. It's what it is. And it will not be transferred to any substitute that the Democratic Party picks instead of Bernie.
No matter who wins the nomination, Bernie has won the future.
Feel the Bern! Cause it's going to Bern for a long time going forward.
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