Last week, Bernie Sanders officially announced his candidacy to run for president.

This was exciting news for Sanders’ supporters, though many nay-sayers are quick to write him off—saying he doesn’t have a chance of winning the primary, especially against Hillary Clinton.

Nonetheless, the day following his announcement, the Sanders’ campaign reported that Bernie Sanders had already raised $1.5 million dollars in support!

According to the Washington Post:

The donations came from a broad base of supporters—some 35,000 donors who gave an average of $43.54 a piece, according to the Sanders campaign. The campaign also said it signed up more than 100,000 supporters through its website, building what it calls a “mass movement.”

That average number of individual donations breaking down to approximately $40 is extremely noteworthy. See, it isn’t big business or wealthy donors contributing thousands of dollars at a time, as is often the case with other political campaigns.

Rather, Sanders’ support is coming from regular citizens, who are opting to give whatever they can, in the hopes of securing Senator Sanders a shot at running a convincing campaign—because winning against Hillary is going to be tough, as she already has a great deal of political and financial support.

However, this is no reason to dismiss Bernie Sanders or the power of the people. Just the opposite—Sanders offers folks a breath of fresh air, in terms of getting money out of politics and actually trying to do what is in the best interest of the people.

I recently came across the following infographic, which shows the top financial contributors of Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders:

Clinton receives financial support from entities such as cable companies and banks, while Sanders’ receives support from worker’s unions and teacher’s federations. (Clinton’s sources of support cause some worry that she is being set up to be a political puppet, in the pocket of big corporations.)

The difference in the amounts being donated is also notable—the large corporations will of course have more to contribute than labor unions will.

This is one of the very issues that is exceedingly important to Bernie Sanders—should big businesses and corporations simply be allowed to buy campaigns or buy politicians?

Is that what Democracy is about?

If so inspired, we can show our support for Bernie Sanders here.

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Author: Yoli Ramazzina

Editor: Alli Sarazen

Photo: Flickr/AFGE; IMGUR