Tom Seyer is out here paying TLC to play his rallies, while Bernie Sanders keeps racking up the big-name endorsements. The Democratic presidential candidate from New Hampshire has found support from The Strokes, Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver, Miike Snow, Lykke Li, and even newly minted US citizen Neil Young. Now he’s added another beloved name to his list of supporters: comedic great Dick Van Dyke.
While a lot of Sanders’ backers have aimed at catching the attention of younger votes, Van Dyke’s endorsement is specifically targeted at an older crowd. In a campaign ad released on Friday, the 94-year-old Mary Poppins star says, “The age question keeps coming up. I know that I’m 20 years older than Bernie. I have all my marbles!… It really doesn’t matter, except for his experience and the years he’s put in.”
At 78 years old, Sanders would be the oldest person ever elected to the presidency should he win. (For that matter, so would Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, or Elizabeth Warren.) While that hasn’t detoured youth enthusiasm from pushing him to the front of the pack, it seems the elderly crowd isn’t as comfortable with voting for one of their peers. In an effort to assuage their concerns, Van Dyke says in the video,
“I can’t understand why, according to the polls, he’s having problems with older citizens, like me. Why wouldn’t an older citizen vote for somebody with that kind of a record, and that kind of experience and honesty? It just doesn’t make sense to me that he’s not getting my generation. And I want to urge my generation to get out and vote for him, please.”
Elsewhere in the clip, Van Dyke attacks current President Donald Trump, calling the 2020 election the most important one “since the end of World War II.” He continues,
“Another four years of the current administration and we won’t have a democracy anymore. Four more years of no concern about the climate. We must get him out of there. Democratic principles are flying out the window. He has assumed authority beyond what the president is allowed, and he’s going to get worse.”
Watch the full ad below.
Dick Van Dyke Endorses Bernie Sanders in Plea to Geriatric Voters: Watch
Ben Kaye
