Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is fed up with the idea that young Americans are too apathetic or too busy playing video games to be interested in politics.

“The young people are the future of our republic,” Sanders said in Syracuse on Tuesday. “And they damn well want to help shape the future of the United States of America.”

Sanders took his New York state campaign to Syracuse on Tuesday afternoon following a morning stop in Rochester. He spoke at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at the Oncenter Complex to a crowd of hundreds of loyal supporters — among them young, middle-aged and elderly people — for more than one hour and 15 minutes before the state primary on April 19.

The presidential candidate appealed to those young people in the crowd by talking about the current state of higher education in the U.S. and how he would amend it as president. He equated the value of a college degree today to that of a high school degree 50 years ago, and said it’s time to rethink what public education means today.

That rethinking, he said, should include making tuition free to combat student debt.

“Young people getting an education should be rewarded, not punished,” Sanders said before receiving a monstrous applause. “We need the best-educated workforce in the world. We should make it easier for people to get the education they need, not harder.”

In an appeal to his supporters to get out and vote on April 19, Sanders laid out on Tuesday nearly every initiative he has championed throughout his campaign, from campaign finance reform to economic inequality to minority and women’s rights. He primarily focused on domestic policy, but veered into foreign policy on several occasions to criticize the U.S.’ interference in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sanders began his speech by distinguishing the campaign fundraising tactics between he and his opponent in the Democratic race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sanders criticized the current campaign system for “corrupting democracy,” a phenomenon he thinks Clinton has a role in, considering she has several super PACs that he said have raised her tens of millions of dollars. Clinton, he said, has gained $25 million from special interests, including $15 million from Wall Street.

The senator has separated himself from super PACs and Wall Street funding, and said his campaign has raised more than $6 million in individual campaign contributions. The average contribution, he said, is $27.

Sanders also criticized Clinton for the amount of money she receives for giving speeches. Over the years, he said, Clinton has given speeches for $225,000 a piece.

“Now, seems to me if you’re going to get $225,000 a speech, it must be an extraordinarily brilliant speech,” Sanders said. “It must be a speech that would enlighten all of humanity, probably solve all of the crises facing our planet, must have been a speech written in Shakespearean prose.”

Sanders expanded upon his criticism of Clinton’s affiliation with Wall Street and super PACs to discuss economic inequality as it affects everyday Americans. He said the economy is worse today than it has been since 1928 — during the Great Depression — and slammed big businesses such as Walmart for paying their employees such low wages they are forced to go on Medicaid and food stamps to survive.

“And this is what is crazy, and this is what a rigged economy is about,” said Sanders, who supports raising the national minimum wage to $15. “It is the middle class paying more taxes to subsidize Walmart’s poor, unfair business practices.”

On that note, Sanders criticized Republicans for complaining about welfare abuse when, he said, the major, single welfare beneficiary in the U.S. is the country’s wealthiest family — the Waltons, who own Walmart.

“And I say to that family, get off of welfare, pay your workers a living wage,” he said.

Sanders also touched on the need to reform the country’s “broken” criminal justice system, especially in regard to police brutality and accountability and the war on drugs. The U.S. spends $80 billion per year to imprison 2.2 billion people, he said, adding that it is the wealthiest country in the history of the world but has the most people in jail out of every country in the world.

“China is a communist, authoritarian country four times our size. They don’t tolerate dissent all that well. We have more people in jail than China,” Sanders said. “And together, we’re going to end that international difference.”

To end this issue, Sanders said it is important to ensure that police officers — like all public officials — are held accountable for breaking the law. It’s also important, he said, to demilitarize local police departments and make sure the members of local police forces represent the diversity of the communities they are meant to protect.

Sanders said the U.S. must also “rethink the so-called war on drugs,” adding that “substance abuse is a health issue, not a criminal issue.” He said mental health treatment in the U.S. must be addressed in a bold way. People should receive treatment when they need it, he said, not six months after.

“A great nation is a nation that treats its most vulnerable people with respect,” he said.

Published on April 12, 2016 at 6:36 pm

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu