There is a popular narrative (and a lot of polling data) saying that supporters of Bernie Sanders are millennials. Young, naive, unicorn-believing, free stuff-wanting, wet behind the ears kids who, once they've got jobs and a mortgage, will come down to earth and come to their senses. Often, what gets lost in this story (aside from the truth about millennials) is that there are vast numbers from older generations who understand that they also desperately need the change that Bernie's policy choices could bring if they come to pass. These are people who have spent their entire working lives trying to play the game as it exists today without much success. I am one of them. Life is more complex than a list of bullet points, but here (below) are some economic realities of my life. As you read them, ask yourself if they also describe your life or the lives of people you know. I think many of them might be pretty familiar by now.
> I'm over 40 years old.
> I have a college degree (Bachelor of Science), from my home state university.
> I had to borrow money to get said degree. I would still be paying my student loans today had it not been for life insurance benefits received upon the death of my father in 2010, and I graduated in 1995.
> I married my first wife (also with a bachelor's degree) at age 24. We never felt anywhere close to financially stable enough to buy a house or start a family. We divorced before I was 30. I married my second wife at age 36, and at that time we were pretty sure that we could probably (hopefully) consider having a family and a home.
> Our child was born when I was nearly 43. Sooner would have been nice, but both of us losing our jobs in 2008 followed by a real estate nightmare that put us $60K in the hole made starting a family then seem like a questionable choice under the circumstances. We would like another child, but do not feel confident that we can afford to have another. Choosing to have one was still a little scary, given that even with the economic "recovery" happening, there was nothing to ensure that another crash wouldn't be lurking around the corner.
> We still do not own a home (we rent), and our cars (2) have an average age of 10 years.
> We have some very modest retirement assets through our jobs, but looking at what care for our aging parents costs, it's clear that this will be wholly inadequate for us when the time comes unless something changes soon and radically. I've sometimes wondered out loud which country we will retire in, because we probably won't be able to afford to do it in this one, and I dearly wish that I was joking.
> My wife turned down a recent offer for a promotion at work, because the cost of child care that would have been necessary to take the job exceeded the additional compensation, and we would have lost money.
> Each of us have pretty much maxed out our earning potential at our jobs, and while the wages are better than the minimum, our primary motivation for staying is the health insurance. I am also self-employed, but have yet to get enough consistent work to feel confident giving up my health insurance that my other job provides.
> Without significant economic change in our household, our child will be on their own when it comes time to pay for higher education, just like I was. Lather, rinse, repeat…
Sound familiar?
This is why so many who are middle-aged or older are supporting Sanders along with Millennials. It's not that we're just dying to have an old Jewish guy who calls himself a socialist in the oval office (please know that I have no issues with Bernie's age, ethnicity, or preferred socioeconomic structure). It's just that we've been playing the trickle-down game for decades and too many of us are losing. We've seen what we get from the GOP (Iraq, for starters…) and we've seen what we get from centrist Democrats whose compromises move us further and further to the right. We can't afford to wait any longer while government tinkers around the edges in an effort to avoid upsetting those who fund their election campaigns. We're f***ing coding on the table over here, and it's time to get out the defibrillator, stat.
Will Sanders get everything (or anything) he's calling for through the current congress? Not likely. The golden rule (he who has the gold makes the rules) is not easily broken, and no president can do it on his/her own. But in this election, I can see only one candidate who will relentlessly push for the change we desperately need (we needed it when we elected Obama, too) and can inspire the populace to bring the necessary electoral changes in congress to make it happen. Only one who will appoint policy makers to the Treasury Department that will act in the interest of working people instead of the elite. One who will appoint policy makers in the Justice Department who will aggressively prosecute financial crime, rather than allowing fines to be just another cost of doing business on Wall Street. One who will insist on an SEC that regulates the risky derivatives and reckless speculation that continues to put our economy at risk. One who when faced with the "guns vs. butter" choices will lean heavily in the direction of butter and start salvaging our crumbling infrastructure here at home. That candidate is Bernie Sanders.
As they get to know him, many genuinely like Sanders, but in truth nearly anyone who could be counted on to do these things would be enjoying similar support in this election cycle. It's the ideas more so than the man, or as Bernie likes to say, "not me, us."
Change will not be instantaneous if Sanders becomes president. We’re still going to have to work our behinds off. But if we get four or eight years of Clinton, (or Trump or Cruz, perish the thought...) the need for these changes will still be there afterward - people will just be that much more desperate. And - as the Trump phenomenon illustrates - desperate people can be dangerous.
Millennials support Sanders not simply because they are struggling today. They support him because they've already seen tomorrow. When they look at where they'll be economically ten or twenty years from now if nothing changes, they see me (and I'm far better off than many). They see their older siblings, their parents, aunts and uncles, sometimes even their grandparents — all losing ground economically. That scares the hell out of them, and it rightly should. They know that without real change really soon, they’re next.