Hillary Rodham Clinton is not an exciting presidential candidate. When compared to presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, her candidacy is simply boring. Her rallies are smaller, quieter, less on par with a Rolling Stones reunion concert.  Hillary, meanwhile, is commonly perceived as representing an older, richer demographic, and while Bernie has created something of a frenzy on the social media sites, Hillary’s online presence seems nonexistent.  In short, Hillary Clinton is seen as the "establishment" candidate. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, is radical, unexpected, inspiring. He has raised millions in small donations, his rallies are "yuge," his ideas are revolutionary, his hair is crazy, his campaign slogan is great, the Internet loves him, birds love him, young people worship him, and he is the leader of a massive grassroots campaign to fight income inequality and a corrupt campaign finance system and topple the Washington establishment and its crony capitalism:  It all makes really great TV. 

And yet, when it comes to being President of the United States, what really matters are results, and by all measures, Hillary's are just plainly better than Bernie's.

If I were scoring the candidates based on ideological purity regarding progressive issues, the winner would undoubtedly be Bernie. And if I were tallying up who had the best sound bites, there would not even be a contest.  But the fact of the matter is that the race for the presidency is not, in the end, a tournament over who has the best rhetoric, though what we see via the media may very well convince us otherwise.  In other parts of the world, people are truly horrified at the spectacle American politics has become, and it’s not hard to figure why. It can actually be hard to remember during the year-plus stretch of our presidential elections that anything else is happening, anywhere, even in our own country.  And with so much money at stake, with debate after debate that now seem to garner the kind of rabid enthusiasm Americans once reserved for Super Bowls, with hashtags and merchandise and packed stadiums, it can be hard at times to remember that this is not the next American Idol we are voting on; it is the leader of the free world. 

And when it comes to the youth vote, there’s no wonder the Millennials are showing up in droves to support Sanders.  Hillary Clinton gives of something of a sensible-mom-vibe, like she would pester you to eat your vegetables and get your homework done.  Bernie, on the other hands, is more like the wacky uncle who might sneak you a glass of wine at family functions or encourage you to blow off senior year and just travel around Asia for a while.  And, honestly, who would you rather sit next to at the dinner table?  But I think it’s important to ask ourselves if our answer would be the same, if the question was not, who would you like to hang out with? but rather, who would you like in charge of, say, paying the electric bill and getting the grocery shopping done? 

Since becoming a United States Congressman in 1991 and continuing now as a US Senator, Bernie Sanders has consistently held to his ideals, speaking out and voting progressively against popular opinion. That said, during all his time in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, Sanders has sponsored only one passed bill. While passing bills is difficult, only one bill in nearly 25 years is pretty appalling. Additionally, Sanders amended an average of 6.3 bills per year while in the Senate, significantly lower than the 7.4 Senate average. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton has sponsored 10 bills that have passed in the Senate and has amended an average of 8.4 bills per year, higher than the Senate average.

When considering a candidate, it’s important to support the one whose ideas and values will lead this country in the right direction and improve the lives of all its citizens.  But it is also important to remember that the executive branch of the United States government does not accomplish anything with ideas and values alone.  Real leadership does not depend on slogans, sound bites and packed stadiums, but on action, endurance, and cooperation.  For many Americans, particularly younger voters, Sanders’ ideals represent their hope for America’s future.  That said, identifying problems and solving them are two very different issues, and it is my opinion that while the Sanders campaign has raised the former, the latter can be accomplished only by a Clinton presidency.