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Thursday, June 16, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

Local Sanders 

supporters remain 
divided in support of 

nominee 

By LYDIA MURRAY

Summer Managing News Editor

Following the Associated Press’ 

announcement of Hillary Clinton’s 
securing of the Democratic nomi-
nation for president and the fur-
ther affirmation of her place as the 
presumptive nominee after a series 
of key victories in Tuesday’s pri-
maries, supporters of Sen. Bernie 
Sanders (I–Vt.) expressed disap-
pointment.

Nicolas Kolenda, president of 

Students for Sanders, expressed 
that he believes many younger vot-
ers — who have been key supporters 
of Sanders — are largely upset by the 
outcome.

“If it could be summed up in one 

word, I think disappointment is 
the general consensus,” he wrote 
in an e-mail. “I might even go as 
far as saying that a plurality of mil-
lennials are feeling a bit down and 
out: in many states Sanders won an 
unprecedented proportion of mil-
lennials.”

Kolenda also stated his belief that 

the early call for the nomination 
Monday likely led to low voter turn-
out in Tuesday’s election, harming 
Sanders in key contests like Califor-
nia and New Jersey.

Sanders maintains that he will 

remain in the race until the July 
convention 
despite 
what 
now 

appears to be an impossible path to 
victory. Sanders’ reasoning for stay-
ing in the race stems from the tech-
nically unpledged superdelegates, 
who do not officially cast their votes 
until the convention. Clinton has a 
large lead over Sanders in this area, 
which has helped propel her to vic-
tory, and any viable chance that 
Sanders has at the election stems 
from a large number of these super-
delegates switching their support 
from Clinton to Sanders.

According to Charles Shipan, 

University of Michigan political 
science and public policy professor, 
though Sanders may still be holding 
onto his slim chance at the nomina-
tion, it is also likely that he hopes to 
stay in the race long enough to gain 
leverage in terms of getting issues 
that are important to him on the 
party agenda.

“More likely, what he is doing is 

angling for a platform where he gets 
a chance to speak at the convention 
and put forward his ideas where he 
gets the president or Hillary Clinton 
to endorse those ideas, or he gets 
those ideas put onto the Democratic 
Party platform,” he said. “He real-
izes that only in acting in this way 
he has enough leverage to put those 
ideas forward.”

Because of this, Shipan said 

Sanders will eventually move to 
endorse Clinton — the only question 
that remains is when he will do so. 
Additionally, Shipan believes the 
likelihood of a contested Democrat-
ic National Convention is incredibly 
low.

Supporters of Sanders remain 

divided on whether they will sup-
port Clinton in the general elec-

tion. According to Shipan, the vast 
majority of Sanders supporters will 
eventually move to back Clinton 
with a small fraction choosing not 
to vote and an even smaller frac-
tion voting for Republican nominee 
Donald Trump.

Kolenda said while he may not 

actively campaign for Clinton, he 
believes it is important to work for 
a Democratic victory in November.

“In terms of myself, I am not 

sure if I would campaign for Clin-
ton just yet,” he wrote. “My views 
on Clinton are lukewarm at best, so 
it’d be hard to take hours out of the 
day to do much for that campaign. 
However, myself and others will be 
trying my hardest to keep Trump 
out of office, and if the Students 
for Hillary or Campus Democrats 
groups need help to keep Michigan 
out of Trump’s hands, I’d be willing 
to help out. Many of us aren’t neces-
sarily pro-Clinton, but a vast major-
ity of us are incredibly anti-Trump.”

Pressure has been building on 

Sanders to endorse Clinton in order 
to unite the Democratic Party. 
President Barack Obama officially 
endorsed Clinton through a video 
posted to her Facebook page Thurs-
day following a meeting with Sand-
ers, in which he negotiated Sanders’ 
exit from the race.

“Look, I know how hard this job 

can be. That’s why I know Hillary 
will be so good at it,” Obama said in 
the video. “I don’t think there’s ever 
been someone so qualified to hold 
this office. She’s got the courage, the 
compassion and the heart to get the 
job done.”

According to Shipan, strides 

from both candidates will have to 

be taken in order to unite the Demo-
cratic Party under Clinton. Sanders, 
he said, needs to make his support 
for Clinton clear, while Clinton 
needs to embrace Sanders’ support-
ers and express her dedication to 
the same ideals.

Shipan said students on campus 

appeared to be split in terms their 
willingness to support Clinton, with 
some appearing happy with the suc-
cess Sanders saw, while others are 
angered with the lack of a complete 
victory. However, Shipan said the 
views of students may have changed 
since the end of the winter semester 
when he last interacted with them 
fully.

“During the semester, the under-

grads that I talked to who were 
in support of Sanders had a mix of 
views,” he said. “Some of them were 
pleased that he had done as well as 
he had done, and he had brought 
forward a bunch of issues that they 
thought were important, and even if 
he didn’t win, they were delighted 
with the way things had turned out. 
Others were feeling frustrated with 
the sense that the Democratic Party 
closed ranks around Hillary Clinton 
early and Sanders never really had a 
chance to win.”

Kolenda said that, looking for-

ward, Students for Sanders hopes to 
continue to keep students engaged 
in politics as the member begin to 
move in different directions.

“The goal is to keep people politi-

cally interested and involved,” he 
wrtoe. “People within Students for 
Sanders have various beliefs and 
ideologies. Some may aid Students 
for Hillary, others the Campus 
Democrats.”

Campus shifts focus to general election 
after Clinton clinches Democratic primary

ALEXANDRIA BODFISH/Daily

Hillary Clinton speaks at the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Convention at the Cobo Center in Detroit on May 23.

death is influenced by their 
cultures and religions, usually 
tied to race and gender. Assari 
sought to further explore the 
differences in death anxiety 
between Blacks and whites 
caused by race, gender and cul-
ture. 

“We are not interested in 

how culture shapes our feelings 
or our behaviors, but we are 
looking at how culture changes 
the effects of our psychosocial 
factors, behaviors and feel-
ings on our health outcomes,” 
Assari said. “We don’t necessar-
ily believe that culture directly 
shapes our behaviors, feeling 
and health. We believe that cul-
ture changes the complex asso-
ciations that shape health in 
humans.”

The researchers measured 

death anxiety using partici-
pants’ responses to four state-
ments: “I find it hard to face 
up to the fact that I will die,” 
“Thinking about death makes 
me feel uneasy,” “I do not feel 
prepared to face my own death” 
and “I am disturbed by the 
shortness of life.” Participants 
responded to these statements 
using a scale from four (strong-
ly agree) to one (strongly dis-
agree).

The researchers also took 

into account the participants’ 
perceived control over life, 
demographics, 
socio-econom-

ics, number of physical health 
conditions, 
self-rated 
health 

and financial difficulty.

Ultimately, the study found 

that, while race and gender did 
not have a significant effect on 
death anxiety, they influenced 
factors associated with death 
anxiety, such as a number of 
physical health conditions and 
financial difficulty. While the 
results do not explain exactly 
why there are discrepancies in 
death anxiety among different 
people, it is significant to show 
these discrepancies exist for 
different races and genders. 

The study revealed that race 

and gender were different mod-
erating factors linked to death 
anxiety, something Assari said 
he believes resulted from the 
historical adversity Blacks have 
faced, leading to greater resil-
ience. 

RACE AND GENDER
From Page 2

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