In this season of polarized Presidential elections the citizens of Alabama cast their ballots on March 1, 2016 on what is called “Super Tuesday.” All polls indicated that Donald Trump would win the Republican nomination and Hillary Clinton would take the Democratic side in Alabama, and so it was. Clinton won the Democratic side with 78% of the votes, while Trump clenched the Republican victory with 43%. I was certain that I could find plenty of voting citizens
who would be informed on the front-runners when I went to one of Montgomery’s polling sites at Frazer United Methodist Church on the morning of March 1. However, I wanted to find supporters of Bernie Sanders, a far less popular candidate in Alabama.
Sanders is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist with stances on income and wealth inequality, living wage, free college tuition and healthcare that can be regarded as extremely controversial, to say the least, in the conservative state of Alabama. “I’ve been called young, ignorant, naive, stupid and everything in between,” said Jacob Saylor, a 23 year-old Communications major at AUM. “I chalk it up to experience and always try to learn something from the discussion.” Although this kind of disagreement is commonplace, Saylor told me that he has many friends on campus that are Sanders supporters and even told me about seeing several students and teachers at a rally for Sanders in Birmingham.
I asked voters of their opinion of Bernie Sanders at Frazer Church on the morning of the election and received a single positive response amongst countless looks and answers of disgust. “I voted for Bernie because I’m tired of the status quo,” told me Kelly Gillikin, an African American employee of the Revenue Department for the state of Alabama. “I am tired of the richest 1 percent of this country controlling the lives of the entire nation. He will make the government work for the people again.” I sensed that Gillikin was fed up with what is going on in Washington and the political process alike.
Bernie Sanders has taken a small grassroots campaign and turned it into a real threat to Hillary Clinton for obtaining the Democratic Presidential nomination. His campaign has relied on asking supporters for small personal donations for funding in order to eliminate the influence of corporations through PAC donations. Bernie Sanders has proven to poll extremely well with young people throughout the country but has not had success with gaining a lot of support among African Americans, reason why he lost in Alabama. In fact, he beat Clinton by 70 points among young people in the Iowa Democratic caucus.
When I asked Gillikin about supporting a candidate like Bernie Sanders in the state of Alabama she responded with a laugh and said, “I have to watch who I talk politics around at work. That’s for sure.” While this was a sad commentary on the political environment in our state, her next comment encouraged me. “I don’t expect Bernie to even have a chance here in Alabama, but I want to be able to say that I was a part of the movement.”
By Turner Griffin