Bernie Sanders, or “the other democratic candidate” as he is known to the media, is who I support to be the Democratic Party’s nominee and, ultimately, the next President of the United States. Bernie Sanders supporters are often looked at as freeloader millennials who expect everything to be handed to them, when in reality we’re fed up with an economy that isn’t working for the run-of-the-mill family. The reason he caught my attention was his plan to provide free healthcare for every American. My initial reaction to his claim was that it will never happen in my lifetime. However I did my own research and found out it works in a multitude of European countries and it can also work here if we’re willing to make it work.

Looking at his website I discovered that Sanders has been consistent on his views for almost every issue he’s brought up during his presidential campaign. Consistency is a great trait in a presidential candidate and once i realized how unlikely it will be for him to flip-flop on issues that’s when my support for him bloomed. When he speaks about the presence of racial injustice in the United States and what he’s going to do about it, I found photos of him at a civil rights rally in the sixties. When he vows to break up big banks and go after Wall Street investors that caused the recession in 2008, I saw that he has no Super-Pac funding his campaign, is funded by an average donation of around 27 dollars and broke the record for the most individual donations in presidential campaign history. As of March 28, Sanders has raised a total of 139 million dollars with over 99 percent of those contributions coming from individual donations.

Sanders is often portrayed as a boogeyman in the media with cable news network throwing out that he is a democratic socialist and more fit as a president of a European country than for the United States. As someone who has been to multiple European countries over the summer this claim is more of a compliment than an insult. Europeans are generally more happy with what’s going on in their country. The quality of life in Europe also polls higher there than in the United States.

Since he has remained so constant on all of his views he gives me optimism that there will be a revolution of how our political system works and who it works for. Ultimately, I support Bernie Sanders because he is a once in a lifetime candidate who has a past of sticking up for the little guy and will hopefully introduce policies that will help the typical American like you and I.