Hey old people! This is why American youth Feel the Bern

By Sam Lagana

Bernie Sanders’ appeal to so many young people is uncanny to older Americans. As if the Democratic candidate with the socialist message has a secret energy that’s driving them to flock under his banner. No other presidential candidate has such influence over our young adults and even those who are not of voting age. After pressure from Sanders’ team and a lawsuit, an Ohio judge ruled last week that teenagers who turn 18 before Election Day can vote in Ohio’s primary.

What’s mind-boggling is that while the support for Bernie from young people is unwavering, older generations are left scratching their heads and scoffing. How can our youth be so loyal to a 70-something white man who works in Vermont? How can a card carrying Democratic socialist be so well liked by a generation that’s so in love with their connected devices and video games? Don’t these young voters know about the Red Scare? Older Americans often ask my friends and me: Don’t you know about the failed socialist and communist experiments that nearly drove the world to the brink of extinction?!

If the recent spate of anti-drone movies and plays was making you feel warm thoughts about U.S. culture, you'll want to avoid seeing "Eye in the Sky," starring Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, and Aaron Paul. This is what "Zero Dark Thirty" was for torture lies. This is what "The Interview" was for hatred of North Korea. The Director of "Eye in the Sky," Gavin Hood, openly brags about having had military advisors on this film, just as those films had their government advisors. And it shows.

"I'll bet the military loves this film," I told Hood after a screening in Washington, D.C., on Monday. He claimed that some loved it, some liked it, both in the military and in some human rights groups that I won't name because I doubt very much Hood's implication that at least one of them didn't condemn this piece of propaganda.

Like it or not, Bernie and The Donald are connected for the rest of this race and, in the bigger picture, for history. Talking heads link them by accusing Bernie's supporters of being cut from The Donald's supporters' same cloth. Shortsighted companymen in the media are undoubtedly satisfied at having noticed and developed a theory all on their own: people are angry.

While some writers write that this means Establishment Candidates will end up doing "such and such," others contend it proves that Anti-Establishment Candidates will wind up doing "this and that." Basically, expert pundits are experiencing difficulties and nobody knows whats to come.

Each year the Congressional Progressive Caucus releases a weaker and weaker budget proposal. This year they asked for input first. I sent them this and communicated with them about it, so I know they read it. An excerpt:

Robert Bowdrie “Bowe” Bergdahl was held as a POW by the Taliban for 5 years and now for over a year by the U.S. Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. He has received constant treatment from an Army psychiatrist but he has not been returned to his family and home in Hailey, Idaho. Thus in my opinion his recovery and reintegration process has probably done more harm than good by continuing his isolation from the world. But his treatment after repatriation is more about politics than his service or U.S. Army procedures. Consequently, after what he has gone through and endured, he should be freed with an honorable discharge and all of his pay and benefits. Anything less would be an injustice.