Sanders versus Warren: a political ‘feud’ without student support

Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have consistently been pitted against each other for the progressive vote. Sanders is ahead in delegate wins as of publication.

According to major media outlets in the country, presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are not getting along. After butting heads for months and being pitted against each other for the progressive vote, tensions between the two seemed to boil over in a confrontational interaction at the end of the January Democratic Presidential Debate, where they both accused each other of calling the other a liar.

Media publications continued to spin this story, using it to spearhead a larger conversation about the pair’s disputes over policy. Headlines like the Los Angeles Times’ “Who’s lying? How the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren feud could reshape the Democratic race” were everywhere, flooding social media with news of the alleged feud. And voters caught wind of it immediately.

“Mom and dad are fighting,” wrote one Twitter user. ‘I’m moving in with dad,” wrote another. But underneath these lighthearted tweets was a growing fear that this new party infighting would prevent either candidate from securing a place on the ballot in November. Mason Dickerson, freshman film studies major and Bernie Sanders supporter, shared his concerns.

“The last thing that we need right now is a bunch of disagreement and division in the Democratic Party,” Dickerson said. “We need a clear goal if we want to win, and this conflict is only taking us further away from that.”

Camil Toomey, a sophomore communications major and avid Elizabeth Warren supporter, felt similarly on the matter, calling the feud “pointless.”

“At the end of the day, whichever Democratic candidate is holding the seat against (President) Trump, we need to gather behind that candidate,” Toomey said. “If it does end up being in between Trump and Bernie, I’m going to vote Bernie because I would much rather have him in office than another four years of the (expletive) show that is Trump.”

These students, who belong to opposing sides of what CNN is calling the “Ugly” Warren-Sanders feud, are calling for unity rather than division. This is not to say these two voices are representative of the entirety of Sander’s and Warren’s respective voter bases, but they are not alone in their hopes that the bickering will end.

Last month, 18 progressive groups signed a unity pledge in an attempt to bring the conflict to an end, swearing to “focus [their] fight for the nomination against candidates supported by the corporate wing, instead of fighting each other.” Support for this pledge came from groups on both sides.

Regardless, outlets like CNN and the Los Angeles Times painted the picture of warring factions led by politicians eager to knock the other out of the race.

Critics of this media coverage point out that the 2016 election suffered from sensationalism over substance, and this year’s election could be susceptible to the same treatment. In a CNN article from January of this year about the Warren-Sanders feud, there isn’t a word about their platforms or a difference in policy that led them to this tension.

There are a few differences in the candidates’ policies beyond the television-fueled tension. One of the largest points of contention between the two is their views on healthcare; Warren has wants to achieve universal healthcare through increasing public options in the private sector while Sanders completely rejects that concept, instead vying for nationally owned single-payer healthcare out the gate.

But despite these differences, the two share a common goal.

“At the end of the day, the one percent may have enormous wealth and power, but they are just the one percent,” Sanders often says. ‘When the 99 percent stand together, we can transform society.”

Warren has also stated that she’s in “a fight to build an America that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and the well-connected.”

And despite the media warfare, Warren and Sanders seem to have no real interest in feuding either. “Bernie is my friend and I am not here to try to fight with Bernie,” Warren said. Jeff Weaver, senior strategist on the Sanders campaign, “I think we’re all mostly done talking about it, frankly.”

With primaries and caucuses underway, Sanders placed second in Iowa and won New Hampshire. Warren has placed third and fourth respectively.

Super Tuesday is only weeks away, where the Sanders versus Warren controversy will be put to test on a larger scale.