With the upcoming Iowa Caucus taking place February 3rd of 2020, voters will be able to make their first decisions regarding the democratic presidential primary. Below is a political comparison of the top three democratic candidates, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, as well as the aspects that American voters resonate with: the socialist movement/policies, views on campaign fundraising, and candidates’ personal lives.
Personal Life:
Joe Biden has thus far retained his position as the head of the pack (though by a somewhat slim margin) ever since he announced his candidacy. Voters resonate with the emotional trauma Biden has suffered with the loss of his son Beau Biden. Biden cited his reason for not having participated in the 2016 election being that he needed time to grieve with his family. This particular sentiment of the importance of family was shared with voters. Voters tend to view Biden as the most seasoned politician with the greatest amount of experience with a presidency. Biden tends to be a very well thought out candidate, taking longer periods of time to establish his priorities as well as how to deal with the continuous waves of upcoming conflicts. Though many Americans seem to appreciate his maturity, it also lends to the idea of Biden not being as mentally agile or sharp in comparison to others.
In contrast to Biden’s emotional resonation with voters, Bernie Sanders is able to take hold of the anger and desire for change that much of the democratic population holds. Sanders is a self-proclaimed socialist and many of his supporters are the same. Sanders is thus able to appeal to a vast age range. Both Gen Z and Millennials support lower college tuition fees and Sanders’ stance on climate change. Sanders’ socialistic views have started to engage with a large portion of the growing democratic socialist party.
In distinction to Sanders’ wide fan base, Elizabeth Warren runs her candidacy on her own populist economic platform. Warren speaks to the “ordinary citizens of America”, those who work 9-5 jobs and sometimes struggle to make ends meet: a life Warren knew well herself. [DC1] Warren has particularly managed to resonate with voters over the staggering income disparity between America’s upper echelon and its middle class. Voters empathize with her own struggles of being both a working mom and the pressures of living paycheck to paycheck.
Campaign Fundraising:
A contentious issue in the upcoming Presidential Primary has been the use of PAC funding. Earlier in Biden’s candidacy, he had made clear his lack of support for Pac financing, but as he has continued to drop in the polls his campaign has continued to receive super Pac support.
Similarly, since the 2016 election, Sanders has continued to disavow Pac funding, but also receives support from his own foundation as well as a nurse backed super Pac.
Elizabeth Warren has made it a core point of her campaign to not accept monetary funds from any PACs of any kind, rather believing that her own presidential hopes lie in the pockets of the working class. Regardless, Warren has made strides throughout her candidacy so far and continues to represent America’s lower and middle-income classes
Movements/Policies:
All three candidates have differing priorities when it comes to their presidency. Biden hopes to expand the affordable care act to create more catered insurance opportunities for Americans, as well as reducing the amount of offshore oil rigs. Sharing that he also wants to pull out of “unnecessary warfare” such as the Saudi backed war in Yemen.
Bernie Sanders promises to enact policies to address every front that hurts potential supporters: be it eliminating the high costs of college tuition or increasing the minimum wage. However much of Bernie Sanders policies rely on the trust that Americans would be able to accept the trade-offs that come with his widely socialistic laws and policies. Such trade-offs include high taxes and unemployment paired with open trade and slow growth, whether the benefits outweigh the costs is a choice voters will have to make themselves.
Similarly, in a socialistic perspective, Warren’s main hopes for her possible presidency is to increase the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour as well as to attack big corruption and to break up tech conglomerates.
