The Democratic ticket for president has seen a lot of changes over the past few weeks
and whether you like them or not, they surely are drastic. Following a large number of dropouts in the weeks prior, the race has pretty much come down to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. I think it is pretty safe to say that no one expected that.
Biden was incredibly likable during the Obama Administration when he was the vice
president, but ever since the allegations of him kissing and touching women inappropriately, I
had expected that the interest in him would have gone down immensely. Also, given what I have noticed within my peer groups and on social media, people are not very interested in him at all and he is really popular with the Baby Boomers and Generation X. I think this would be
because he is a little more moderate than Sanders and also because of his role in the
Obama Administration. He is familiar and in their eyes is a little more stable and normal than the current administration.
On the inverse, however, many younger people are really in favor of Sanders
because he is drastically different from this administration and Biden. His socialist ideals are really appealing to younger generations who think you can just get things for free without
consequence. Do not get me wrong, I love free things, but somebody has to pay for free things. It would be free to them and not free to others. And at that point, it is unfair for others to pay more when they do not get to take advantage of these things.
Overall, I think Biden will win the Democratic ticket. I think a lot of moderate Democrats will not stand for the undoing of capitalism and a lot of other things that Sanders thinks and believes. Biden is just a safer choice than Bernie or even Trump in a lot of minds. Also, we have seen his performance as vice president, and he has a lot of endorsements from very notable names in politics. This even includes former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, who added their names to the endorsement list as soon as they dropped out. Given his performance in the three most recent primaries, it would be unlikely at this point for him to lose the nomination. Considering that Biden has won 1,215 delegates of the 1,991 to win, and with Sanders in second at 909 delegates, I think it would be hard for Biden to mess up his campaign status at this point due to how close we are to the finish line. However, things are still up in the air, with the coronavirus outbreak leading to an ever-changing schedule of primaries and polling places as the epidemic grows throughout the country.
A quick, but serious, side note: please wash your hands and take caution when going
out. Many people are very sick with COVID-19 right now so be sure to take the proper steps
necessary to ensure the safety of the people around you.
Lydia Mardin can be contacted at
Lydia.Mardin@ksc.keene.edu
