Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke at Liberty University on Sept. 14, addressing key points in his campaign such as gay marriage, abortions and free public college.
For the record, LU, the largest Evangelical Christian university in the world, invited Sanders to come speak. It was a genius idea for Sanders to accept this opportunity to speak and try to appeal to a conservative crowd.
Sanders, a staunch socialist running in the Democratic primary, opened his speech to the public, but many LU students attended the event. Whenever a major point of his was brought up, the crowd erupted into applause and cheers; at least it seemed that way.
When cameras panned to the LU students in the crowd, they were calmly seated and quiet, but you could hear cheering and clapping in the background. That was Sanders' large group of supporters, whom he brought with him and seated up close to the stage so their voices could be heard loud and clear.
I’m a bit disappointed in Sanders' attempt to tailor the crowd and doctor the atmosphere for purely political and personal gains. However, LU student and also my good friend, Henry Lough, brought up a good point after he brought this incident to my attention.
“Bernie made a good point, that it is healthy that two groups need to discuss their differences, which is precisely what we did,” Lough said.
He’s right. This probably was the closest incident of bipartisanship and cooperation we have seen between two completely opposite groups since President Ronald Reagan shook hands with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
This is something I can guarantee you will not see Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton do. There is no way in hell she will step foot in front of a conservative crowd and give a speech because one, her pride would get in the way, and two, no conservative institution would invite her to come speak.
Sanders just took a massive leap forward, not just for his campaign but for politics in general.
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