You may or may not have noticed but I don’t write much about political issues. However, this coming election, and the events leading up to it, have moved me to make a few comments. I believe Bernie Sanders should stay in the race, despite the fact that his slipping into negativity has disappointed me greatly. So why do I want him there? Because I want his ideology to be heard.

People who don’t know me well, tend to assume I am very shallow and even not very bright, not only because I like Britney Spears and *NSYC – but because I cannot quote legislature or precedent to back up the things I believe in. I worried about this for a while – doubted my intelligence, but I have realized – that’s not the role I am supposed to be playing.

My views are philosophical, more that political. Though I don’t claim to be an expert on Hegel – I identify with his philosophy, especially the view he expressed in ,Philosophy of Right, Hegel writes, “The ethical substance, as containing independent self-consciousness united with its concept, is the actual mind of a family and a nation.” In other words – individual people will come together to move society toward what is right.” 1. We have seen so much of this in the first part of the 21st century – single sex marriage – transgender bathrooms, enlightenment concerning mental illness – on and on. But these movements and ratifications don’t come without individual people expressing and standing by their beliefs in the face of criticism and ridicule by pragmatists.

I used to feel very inferior, because I was armed with feeling, rather than established rules. But I am what Hegel calls an, “Absolute Idealist.” My views are not formed without logic – but are rather based wholly on logic.It is a logic I reason through. My reasoning may seem odd or impractical to others – but it is sound in keeping with what my heart and head perceive as wholly logical.

So I WANT Sanders to keep pushing the envelope toward social democracy, because that is the closest I can come to a candidate who echoes my own personal beliefs and values. So he doesn’t get the nomination – he’s thrown into the spotlight beliefs I hold that I never thought would get national attention. The seeds are being planted for new ideas and serious consideration of issues I believe in. It’s a sign of the collective moving toward my personal idea of Right and THAT’S what I am meant to be supporting in order to see positive change in our world. Movement toward the Right does not come from the civil society, but from the social society, according to Hegel – and I believe we have witnessed much of that – even in the public outrage at Zimmerman’s gun auction.
My 2 cents plus a bit more.

!. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, and Carl J. Friedrich. The Philosophy of Right. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.