OPINION:
Sen. Bernie Sanders has finally found his presidential campaign niche — college-age kids. You know, the ones who pretend like they’re adults because they live away from home, but who call mom every weekend to get their pizza and beer checks.
Small wonder the socialist message resonates with them, right?
A new poll from Chegg and College Pulse reported in Breitbart found that the more socialist the candidate, the better the poll numbers with this college-age crowd. Sanders, for instance, topped with 29% of the total student vote; Sen. Elizabeth Warren — a far-left loon like Sanders but one who masquerades as a Democrat — came in next with 22%. Poor former Vice President Joe Biden. He stands as a moderate in college kids’ minds. He only received 10% of the tally.
That “free stuff, get your free stuff!” message is resonating among the youth of American isn’t all that much of a surprise. After all, who doesn’t like free stuff?
But it’s a lazy entitlement nature that’s going to prove problematic for the future of America.
America has historically been a country where self-sufficiency and independence are prized. Charity was something to take in secret, only in the most dire of circumstances, and even then, it was accepted with a touch of shame, accompanied more often than not with a personal vow to never again fall that low in life. Nowadays?
That shame has been turned into a whole party platform.
Sanders the socialist is running a whole campaign based on “Medicare for All,” free college for all, prescription pills and housing and jobs and God knows what else free for all. Look at the costs and even a math failure can see it’s all flights and fancies — all bankruptcy and bust.
But even worse than the financial deceits involved with selling a socialist message is the attitudes it instills in the youth.
College is supposed to be ground zero time for laying out a life of purpose and prosperity; college years are supposed to be spent in fruitful endeavors and on pertinent studies that will help forge a future of success.
That the college crowd is cheering Sanders shows only this: They’re excited at the prospect of spending even more years, post-college, living off the fruits of others’ labors.
These are the upcoming leaders of America?
Sanders may have found his niche — his Bernie Sanders Boyz in the hood, so to speak, cheering him to the White House. But his niche is a clanging gong for the rest of us. It says make way for the entitlement youth. It says prepare to pay for them with more and more tax dollars.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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