“When young people vote, Bernie wins.”

That’s been the message behind the Bernie Sanders campaign training I’ve participated in. Millennial and Generation Z voters overwhelmingly support the democratic socialist senator.

Why have young people rejected the neoliberal capitalism of American establishment politics?

Let’s start with the wealth gap: The top 1% of Americans control 32% of the wealth. Additionally, the minimum wage hasn’t increased since 2009; when we account for inflation, our minimum wage is lower than it was in 1980.

Meanwhile, Congress just approved a $738 billion military budget, continuing Middle Eastern wars that have been raging since before many of us were born.

Is it any wonder that millions of working-class Americans are rejecting a system that only benefits the rich? Millennial and Gen Z voters have to contend with crushing student loan debt — a crisis that just reached a staggering $1.6 trillion.

Add to that the burden of rising health care costs and an impending climate crisis, and now you have really stacked the deck against young people.

Those of us who are uninsured or underinsured, or staring down a lifetime of student debt, are looking to fix a system that is not designed to work for us.

Everything we have been told about neoliberal capitalism — that it gives everyone an equal chance to succeed, that the market allocates resources appropriately, that wealth will trickle down to the lower classes — is 100% false.

Sanders is the only candidate offering real solutions — fundamental change to a system that is not working for the 99%.

How far-fetched is it, really, to believe in a “Medicare for All” plan that could give everyone health insurance at a lower cost than the current system? Or a Green New Deal that would create 20 million jobs in green energy while averting the climate crisis? Or a student loan reduction/forgiveness plan that would unburden college graduates from crushing loans?

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These ideas aren’t new. Nearly every developed nation provides universal health care to its people, except the U.S. We have almost 30 million uninsured people in this country; please, tell me how exactly that proves that America’s free-market health insurance is best?

I know what it’s like to not have health insurance at all. And I know what it’s like to worry that my subpar insurance plan won’t cover my health care provider. I can’t imagine what it must be like for those facing serious medical emergencies or chronic diseases.

According to a study at Yale University, Medicare for All would save 68,000 lives a year. Yet critics allege that the program is too expensive. But let’s get real: A country with a $738 billion military budget is hardly penniless. Let’s use our tax dollars to help American people, not to support endless wars.

The good news: Sanders is leading the Democratic field in national polls and he consistently beats President Donald Trump in national polls.

Trump himself has said the democratic socialist message is hard to beat in 2020, and that he’s glad he didn’t have to run against Sanders in 2016. Clearly, Sanders’ message has mass appeal.

Sanders is running a grassroots campaign promising to deliver on all the things he’s been advocating for the last 50 years.

His message resonates with workers and young people who have been left behind by America’s economic policies.

The populist movement is surging, despite outcries from the political establishment and mainstream media.

Sanders’ campaign is supported by millions of people who are finally demanding a better life through social justice and economic equality.

Emily Karreman is in grade 12 at Garden Spot High School.