For millennial voters, it appears that being pro-Hillary has become synonymous with being anti-Bernie — a phenomenon that is ironically anti-Democratic.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was interrupted at a speaking engagement last week at the State University of New York at Purchase by hecklers shouting “she wins, we lose.” The vocal critics were there in support of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s opponent for the Democratic nomination. While the race is tight and the New York state primaries are just around the corner on April 19, this dichotomy needs to simmer down.

As seen so close to home, each Democratic candidates’ ethos resonates with one of the two types of millennial voters: Sanders, the revolutionary idealist, and Clinton, the pragmatic negotiator. So, there comes a dilemma — a worrisome split in a powerful Democratic voting base. But to not lose sight of the overall goal of retaining power in the White House, liberals should address this support gap at a time when Republicans are grappling to choose their own candidate and there are campus rumors of local Donald Trump rally taking place next week.

A recent CBS News poll conducted in New York pegs Clinton as the winner of the state’s primary with a 10-point lead. With a race so close, emotions can run high. But it has never made sense to me why voters in the same party would foster hatred and hostility among members using the same identifier to express political alliance. And while advocating for your candidate is very welcome in this oh-so-democratic society, it is important that ideals serve to unite a party rather than divide it.

So, this expression, while theoretically respectable, is one that if continued, will add to the possibility of the Trumps and Ted Cruzs of the world coming into power to lead the United States to a terrifying fate. To make sure that doesn’t happen, we must respectfully appreciate the upsides of both Democratic candidates to not deter ourselves and fellow voters from supporting our party.

The Pew Research Center found in 2014 that half of millennials identify as politically independent, but more often than not end up voting for the Democratic candidate. This trend is an important one and with the seemingly schismatic nature of the Democratic Party in this election, it seems that those who “feel the Bern” will vote for Clinton if that is what it comes down to, and vice versa.

While party loyalty was a sure thing in previous elections, if there’s anything that can be taken away from the past few months, it is that nothing is certain. Case in point: Donald Trump is a presidential candidate and winning. The results of this election and its related outcomes will have a drastic impact on millennials as we enter adulthood without our parents helping us in the voting booth on election day and thereafter.

“How you vote when you’re young often carries over into life,” said Michael Kazin, co-editor of Dissent magazine, a political and cultural publication. “The idea that politics doesn’t matter and isn’t relevant to life is naive and wrong. You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you.”

There are fundamental rights at stake in the 2016 election. Millennials have grown up being able to choose what we do with our bodies. Women are allowed to get abortions and access contraceptives. We fight for our ability to protect personal privacy. It is becoming status quo to openly talk about mental health and wellbeing. The discussion surrounding immigration is now met with a more positive connotation. We have the freedom to be.

We do not realize what the world would look like without these liberties and definitely should not want to find out.

“There would be no more defining choice for young people and their future, than the choice given in November,” said Lauren Stiller Rikleen, author of “You Raised Us — Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams.”

“If millennials do not ultimately become engaged in the upcoming election, they are doing a disservice not just to their generation, but to the country,” she added.

This is why it’s important to care, to have an opinion, to vote in the primary. These decisions count and every vote matters. People often look to the human aspects of candidates: the personality, the honesty, the revolutionary nature, when deciding whose name they punch on the ballot. In this election, maybe more so than in others, the policies the candidate will support and the work they will get done, are factors that are central to the decision to be made.

It’s this passion of millennial voters that has made it clear that they would rather identify with a person, rather than a party — to align themselves with the candidate who is as anti-establishment as they are.

Political expression and freedom are one of the foremost pillars of our nation, even the first amendment of the Constitution is plastered across the side of Newhouse III. But when Clinton came to the Syracuse University hill last week, as she interacted with community members at Varsity Pizza on Marshall Street, she was met with boos and cheers of “Bernie.”

“One other thing to remember about young people: They are much less interested in and committed to political parties, in general, than older people.” said Kristi Andersen, professor of political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, in an email.

So while millennials rarely opt for a label when it comes to political association and intend to have a conflicting ideology on what the president should strive to do, they shouldn’t be creating a battle between Sanders and Clinton. The focus should remain on the war to overcome the party that will take history backwards.

And in standing together, young voters will channel the power that they feel the establishment deprives them of to make America great again.

Joanna Orland is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at jorland@syr.edu.

Published on April 7, 2016 at 12:52 am