The kids are with Bernie
American millennials are actively rooting for Senator Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination for the Presidential Elections. Why doesn’t the Netherlands have its own angry grandpa figure yet?
Who’d ever have guessed that a 74-year-old, so-called ‘democratic socialist’ from Vermont would go on to become one of the most popular politicians of present day America with all the fixings? Namely a doll
made in his likeness, thousands of memes and a fan base of young American voters?
Certainly not Senator Bernie Sanders himself, that much is clear. During one of his many stump speeches at a private liberal arts college, he turned to the students sitting on the benches behind him, cheering and calling his name. ‘I feel like a rock star,’ he said grinning, and threw his jacket into the startled crowds.
The man who has been ridiculed for this viewpoints, a tendency to hold hour-long, rambling speeches, his age, his ‘ineluctability’ is now hipper than hip. Young Americans throughout the nation #FeelTheBern, as the immensely popular hashtag dictates. These millennials, who are normally disinterested in voting, mustered together to bring Bernie into a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses and a clear victory in New Hampshire. So far he’s even managed to attract a majority of the votes of young women, the demographic Clinton is so eagerly chasing after. And all by doing one thing: being honest.
‘I think we need to believe in a leader like Bernie Sanders. People are dying. This is real. We need a president that will talk about it. Bernie is a protester. He’s not scared to go up against the criminal justice system. He is not scared.’ Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by the NYPD in July 2014, makes a moving impression in a campaign video for Bernie Sanders that was released last week. Garner is just one of the many people who has openly expressed their support for Bernie. The reasons for this may vary, but in the end it all boils down to the fact that his campaign touches upon many of the issues they have been struggling with for the past couple of years. The millennials of today have seen the recession from the inside, have seen innocent black people shot to death by police officers, have seen their student debts rising exponentially while their career prospects drift away. Sanders acknowledges these problems and offers them something in return: national healthcare, free education and economic equality for everyone.
Angry young people
‘Sanders’ message is not just ideological, it’s also very personal for these young Americans,’ Boris Heesink, UvA-alumnus and current PhD-researcher at the University of Virginia, argues. ‘His rhetoric resonates very deeply with them, because it hits so close to home.’ Heesink also points out that Hillary Clinton, the other Democratic candidate, faces trust issues with the young voters. ‘Clinton is part of the establishment for them, she has strong connections with Wall Street and supported the war in Iraq, which, in their opinion, makes her untrustworthy. On top of that, Clinton doesn’t really have a clear message as to why we need to vote for her beside the fact that she is the one we’re voting for. With Sanders, it’s more about the political revolution he wants to start. With Clinton, it’s about her.’ Across the globe, momentum seems to be building for a movement best described as ‘Angry Young People’. Sanders in America, Corbyn in Britain, Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece have all gathered massive support from millennials who are fed up with the way things are going in their country. Meanwhile, Dutch students are as unimpressed as ever with their politicians, but don’t feel like they have much of a voice in changing the status quo. Why is that?
‘The system is completely different here,’ says Daniël van Duijn (24), who used to study political science at the UvA and went on a trip to the USA with the BKB Academie, a diverse group of young people learning about campaigning. When asked, he says he would vote for Sanders and plans on joining his campaign team if the Senator wins the Demo- cratic nomination. ‘We can’t choose our own prime minister or leading party, which means politicians here don’t have to actively campaign to gain votes.’ Law student Mike Koudenburg (20), confirms this. ‘The issues Sanders is addressing really matter in the States, but over here, we are somewhat spoiled. Also, there are so many political parties here, that it doesn’t really matter what their viewpoints are: they’re thrown together in a coalition and will always have to make compromises to make things work.’
Yet Tom van der Meer, associate professor in political science at the UvA, thinks otherwise. ‘It is true that in political systems such as the US and Britain, where one majority party determines policy for the next couple of years, people have to be more engaged because there is more on the line than in the Netherlands. Nevertheless you see that young voters tend to go for the outsiders, the dissonant view. This holds for the Netherlands as well, with the difference that, here, people vote for parties instead of politicians.’ A striking example is the Piratenpartij, whose largest amount of votes came from young people because of their radical standpoints on the (il)legality of downloading music and copyright claims.
While Bernie Sanders, the United States’ favourite grandpa, represents radical change; political parties in the Netherlands don’t really stand for anything in particular. Sure, there are differences, but when it comes to actual policies, the famous ‘poldermodel’ is simply too much alive for any political party to ever drastically spin the wheel. Also, the Dutch don’t have a real leader figure to look up to and follow.
‘Politicians like Wouter Bos, Jan Marijnissen and Diederik Samsom — all left-wing — used to have this kind of momentum among young voters,’ explains Heesink, ‘but the problem is that after the elections, we’re almost always in for a disappointment. Either the party doesn’t make it into the coalition, or the government decides on a different policy than the voters were promised as happened in the most recent elections with PvdA and VVD.’
That same kind of disappointment might overcome the voters who are currently feeling the Bern, as many political analysts pointed out that the Senate Bernie has to work with if he indeed makes it into the Oval Office is largely Republican-oriented. They can block almost any bill Sanders comes up with, making effective presidency a far-fetched goal.
But at least the American millennials will have had someone to actively root for, while the Movement of the Angry Youngs hasn’t quite reached the Netherlands yet. Then again, maybe we’re just waiting for our own hip grandpa to come along.
