I’ve always maintained that a little bit of skepticism can be a healthy thing. Skepticism, at least in my mind, has always occupied a comfortable middle ground between optimism and pessimism; going through life as a skeptic all but ensures that one will neither be too disappointed when the ground falls out from under them, nor all that overwhelmed when life works out in their favor.
As the U.S. begins its overly long election season, I’ve found skepticism to be more of a necessity than ever. Election seasons in the United States are a time of false promises, platitudes and pandering; with millions of dollars in donations at stake (not to mention the highest seat in the government), there is little room for blunt honesty on the election trail.
It took me a long time to learn this for myself. Like many of my generation, I felt burned after President Barack Obama’s historic election in 2008. After eight years under the Bush administration, the Obama campaign’s promises of “Change” and “Hope” struck a chord with my then-idealistic notions of what a president could reasonably achieve in office. Seven years later, although I have yet to become a full-blown pessimist, the expectations I have for our political leaders have been considerably diminished.
Leading up to this election season, I believed that Obama’s appeal and subsequent disappointment had left a permanent scar on young voters, dissuading them from ever mobilizing behind a candidate again. Imagine my surprise then when my Facebook feed was inundated with news articles, likes and statuses all in support of Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont.
Sanders, who is gunning for the Democratic nomination, stands firmly to the left of frontrunner Hillary Clinton on the issues, predominantly with regards to the economy and America’s ever-increasing wealth gap.For a firm leftie like myself, it is certainly refreshing to see a candidate with a long history of sticking to his guns actually seem to do that on a national platform. But is it wrong if, unlike many of my friends, I’m reserving my excitement? As I see it, the hype behind Senator Sanders recalls that of a certain U.S. senator from Chicago in 2008.
Both Sanders and Obama emerged as alternatives to Hillary Clinton, and both have been touted as alternatives to the political norm. I’ll be the first to say that Sanders is my first choice for president come 2016, but I seem to be the only one saying it without a hint of hysteria in my voice. Call it disillusion, cynicism or negativity, but if Obama’s presidency has taught me anything about the political process, it’s that it is foolish to invest your time and hopes into a single figure.
I am reluctant to use the word demagogue, given that the word carries such a negative and manipulative air about it, but it sometimes seems as though the electorate regards men like Obama and Sanders with the fervor that demagogues seek to inspire. I can excuse the excitement I possessed for Obama because I was 14 at the time of his election; I know better now than to pin all my aspirations for American society onto one man.
It is my sincere hope that Sanders, at the very least, wins the Democratic nomination and steers the American political dialogue leftward. In the event that he becomes president, I truly believe that he would do everything in his power to curb climate change, enable young men and women to pursue an education without fear of accumulating debt, and actually reign in Wall Street.
Whether he’d actually be able to realize those lofty ambitions? I remain skeptical.
Zach Schlein is a UF political science senior. His column appears on Thursday.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 7/9/15]
