By Nicholas Riebel || Staff Writer

If you listen to the pundits and the politicians, they will tell you that Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly won the Democratic presidential debate, held last Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada. And why shouldn’t they? If Bernie Sanders wins, the rich pundits and politicians are going to be taxed more heavily to pay for things like education and health care. If Hillary Clinton wins, suffice it to say, they won’t be as concerned about that happening.

Clinton, it must be admitted, was the most polished, practiced, and prepared. She is a very good politician. She obviously knew the right things to say, and the right ways to say them. But just because she had the best performance does not mean that she won the debate. Just because she says she’s a progressive, just because she says she will push for progressive reform, doesn’t mean she actually will.

The same media which dismissed Donald Trump as being too fringe and conservative for the Republican party is dismissing Bernie Sanders as being too fringe and liberal for the Democratic party.

Donald Trump, of course, is not too fringe and conservative for the Republican party. According to at least one poll, it is possible he may lose due to not being sufficiently conservative. Very conservative Republicans, I suspect, will end up supporting the more ideologically pure Ben Carson and Ted Cruz. Bernie Sanders, in the opinion of the media, is an interesting phenomenon: although they contend that the Democratic party is growing just as extreme as the Republican party, Bernie Sanders is just too far out there for even most liberal Democrats. Surely, in their minds, he is a candidate without a path to the nomination.

But soon enough, despite (or perhaps because) of his honest commitment to democratic socialism, he started doing well in the polls, and he is catching up to Hillary Clinton in Iowa, and may have even overtaken her in New Hampshire (http://bit.ly/1XbCiNN). And make no mistake: he could be the Democratic nominee, and go on to win the White House, especially if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee. As of this time, he looks extremely likely to be their standard-bearer.

Sanders did not brag about his accomplishments in his opening remarks, unlike his opponents. That was because he is dedicated to his agenda: to remove the disproportionate influence of the rich and powerful from our democracy. It is a cancerous growth that will be difficult to cut out, but it must be cut out, or our country will not survive. If Wall Street and these special interests continue to accumulate power, we will reach a point in which our legislators and presidents don’t even pretend to serve the interests of their constituents anymore. They will unabashedly serve the interests of the rich and powerful, who will use the government to accumulate further wealth and power at our expense.

Clinton is pretending to be liberal now, and it’s kind of funny to see how she’s acting as though she’ll be tougher on Wall Street than Bernie Sanders would be. She’s lying. Her career in politics has been serving their interests, and she will continue this if she becomes president (http://bit.ly/1LP0cf9). Her actions speak louder than her words to me, and I hope they do to you as well.

Sanders says the right things, and does the right things too. That’s why I support him and not Clinton. Even more than President Obama, she will sell our democracy to the highest bidder. In that way, she’s not much different from a Republican, but at least some of them do it out of principle (at least in part), whereas Clinton and Obama do so merely in their own pursuit of wealth, power, and prestige.

This is in addition to Clinton’s other failings as a candidate, like her weaknesses with  social issues and foreign policy, and I simply do not trust that she will do the right things as president. Bernie Sanders has walked the walk. That’s why I feel the Bern.

We need Bernie Sanders as president. His valiant debate performance proved that he will lead the country toward our best future.

Junior Nicholas Riebel is a staff writer. His email is nriebel@fandm.edu.

By TCR