Readers React: Why young people support Sanders: They don’t get their news from old, monopolistic media

To the editor: Despite analyzing at length why there is an age gap between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters, your article fails to answer the very question it asks. (“Why young voters are flocking to Sanders, and older ones to Clinton,” April 19)

More surprisingly, the reporting did not identify the primary reason young people are flocking to the Sanders candidacy. Namely, those individuals under 45 years old are not influenced by mainstream corporate media, network news, cable TV news or outlets such as The Times.

Today, a politician’s half-truths, distortions or flip-flops are easily discredited by following a Reddit link to a YouTube video. Or you might check out alternative online sources of opinion found in the pages of Inquisitr, Daily Kos or Alternet. And then there’s The Young Turks.

Gone are the days when a few monolithic broadcast networks and major newspapers could shape an election narrative or mold public opinion. Young people who source their news from the Internet know this fact.

Fred Siegel, Marina del Rey

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To the editor: Younger voters do not have the history and experience to draw upon to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Sanders’ idea of tuition-free education sounds great, but what about graduate students already saddled with huge student loans? Will the legislation deal with loan forgiveness programs? Will students who have already paid their debts be reimbursed? Finally, who is going to pay for all this?

Sanders may not take his pointers from Donald Trump, but he is not far behind in making promises he will be unable to keep.

Younger voters have not viewed Sander’s prior campaigns, wherein he would demean his opponents as being part of the establishment without having to be specific about his solutions. He avoids the issue that he has been part of this establishment for more than 20 years and has done little to change it.

Richard C. Armendariz, Huntington Beach

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To the editor: I am 68 years old and have no children approaching college age. I do have grandchildren and grandnieces and nephews in that category.

I worry about the world being inherited by post-millennials. Without proper education, they will not be prepared for their world. Yes, the few who can afford college without burdening themselves with debt will be nicely positioned, but everyone else will struggle to survive like so many of their parents do now.

We can’t have another generation struggling. The future is too important, too demanding.

Free college is the simple panacea for this problem. Sanders will give us that, and for that reason alone, Americans in the Clinton demographic like myself should support Sanders.

John Francis Smith, Studio City

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