Why The Young Love Bernie

Indulging The Pop-Psych Doctor Within -- I Turn On 'Hill Light'

Question: Why's Bernie so gob-smackin' popular among younger voters?

Bernie Bro.: He's up-front.

Hill Light: But the Donald's equally candid.

BB: Yeah, but Bernie IDs the best solutions to problems. like income inequality and college costs.

HL: But are those solutions realistic?

BB: You gotta go full-throttle, not half-baked meh solutions.

HL: Like Ralph Nader in 2000?  He had the best answers, and what we got was 8 years of retreat.

BB: Sometimes you gotta take a dive and come back even stronger.

HL: What if you don't have the extra cash cushion to 'take a dive'?

The back-and-forth can go on, but that's the Democratic race for the presidential nomination in a nutshell.  In general, those who can afford to 'take a dive', cash-wise, or in terms of injustice, environmental degradation, military folly, and so on, are attracted to the more masculine 'What's-the-quickest-way-to-there-from-here?' ideal.  Those that don't have an extra cash cushion, that can't afford the risk of back-tracking at the Supreme Court, with Climate Change, and another Republican war overseas, tend to favor the more incremental, some might say, or more feminine 'What'll the zeitgeist allow us to accomplish--assuming a prudent approach?"

The word "prudent" sums things up.  It's a word older people use.

Now, obviously, we could follow the arguments on either side one or more steps further.  Our Bernie Bro is likely to question the need for a prudent, cautious approach when radical solutions seem all the rage these days.  Hill Light is likely to consider Bernie's more radical solutions 'mansplaining' that, like impatient back-seat kids, just want to 'get there' already.

Of course there're reasons to favor both sides, just as youth and maturity have their enthusiasms and virtues.  We do learn to appreciate context, nuance, prudence and timing as we age.  But we also long for the beauty that we lose when answers are no longer as strongly felt, nor as easily grasped.

So, like most things, one can say that ideally, each side would embrace the other.  And, obviously, that's the most likely path to victory.  Meaning, get ready for a more dedicated Hillary Clinton, or a more measured Bernie Sanders.