Ithaca College Students Polled on Sanders and Rubio’s Foreign Policies
As we approach Sanders’ and Rubio’s first “Meet The Press” session, voters have had time to learn about the candidates’ policies from the two press conferences and the first debate that was held last week. In regards to the candidates’ foreign policies, students at Ithaca College were polled about the approaches Sanders and Rubio would take to combating ISIS and the Syrian refugee crisis. Despite Sanders’ emergence as the stronger candidate after last week’s debate, the numbers were close- it could be anybody’s race at this point.
Of the students polled, 57.1 percent agree with Sanders’ policy that the United States should ally with our Muslim counterparts to help defeat ISIS, whereas 42.9 percent disagreed.
One of the Rubio’s proposed policies is to send air troops into Syria to monitor ISIS activity, which 71.4 percent of students polled agreed with and 28.6 percent disagreed.
Rubio is also in support of sending money to Sunni muslims to help aid them in fighting ISIS, but 80 percent of pollers disagree with this. Instead, they prefer Sanders view to not increase the country’s military spending.
In regards to the Syrian refugee crisis, 57.1 percent of students agree with Sanders that the United States should accept 65,000 Syrian refugees into the country after they are vetted through a background check process. An opposing 42.9 percent disagree with his policy.
57.1 percent of students polled agree with Rubio- that there is no way to accurately vet refugees to ensure that they aren’t connected to terrorism, whereas 42.9 percent disagree with that statement.
“I support welcoming the 65,000 Syrian refugees into the United States, but I do agree with Rubio that there is no completely foolproof way to ensure that all refugees let in aren’t affiliated with terrorism- it’s inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. Overall though, I side with Sanders. I would rather take the risk than let these people suffer in their own country,” said student Morgan Kornfiend.
