Why Bernie?

On Monday, I had the honor of meeting the founders of one of arguably the best ice cream brands out there: The real Ben & Jerry. The ice cream company owners held an event at Westfield State University in which they came down to scoop free ice cream for the community to raise awareness for their endorsement for the Democratic nomination.

The reason this was significant is because, like me, they are huge supporters of Vermont Senator and current Democratic frontrunner, Bernie Sanders. This is what the event was all about. Both Ben & Jerry gave speeches about their values and why they support Bernie.

Neither Ben nor Jerry had ever publicly endorsed any candidate from either party, but that changed in 2016. Before the DNC gave Hillary Clinton the nomination, Ben had named a limited-edition ice cream after Senator Sanders called Bernie’s Yearning. The idea was that all the chocolate was at the top and you had to mix it with the rest of the ice cream beneath. Politically, this was meant to be symbolic of one of the main arguments Bernie Sanders makes: that we need to raise taxes on the rich and use it to take care of everyone else instead of just catering to the interests of Wall Street and huge corporations.

So many people are fed up with our rigged political system, including Ben and Jerry. Recently, it feels like there have been no good choices when it comes to elections; however, Bernie Sanders is the first candidate to excite people in a certain way. As voters, we feel like we finally have somebody that understands our frustration with this corrupt system and wants to fix the major issues that we face in today’s society.

One could argue that we did have this with Obama, but after a while, people started to realize that he really didn’t “change” anything. With Bernie Sanders, it feels different because of his track record.

From the moment he first became the mayor of Ben and Jerry’s hometown of Burlington, Vermont, Bernie has been unwavering in his positions on major issues such as LGBTQ rights, climate change, and wealth inequality. No other candidate has the same level of consistency. Overall, he’s a man of the people, and that’s why we “Feel The Bern!”