Anybody can make a t-shirt supporting a presidential candidate. You don’t need permission.
Sure, the candidate’s campaigns offer plenty of t-shirts. But any guy who just wants to sell t-shirts can make one for that candidate, too. And that independent-made t-shirt doesn’t have to be polite. It can cut right to what some people are actually thinking.
![](https://www.secretsantacruz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Bernie-2016-Tee-1024x682.jpg)
Bernie Sanders’ campaign wouldn’t make this shirt. But in 2016 Bernie was absolutely the “Fuck this Shit” candidate, and some t-shirt guys decided to just, you know, say it. They probably made a few bucks.
Bernie Sanders was and is a polarizing character. People who were comfortable with things as they are just wished he’d go away. But if “things as they are” were killing you — crushing college debt, vanishing jobs, the primacy of wealth over justice — you might see him as a savior.
![](https://www.secretsantacruz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Bernie-Sanders-as-Luke-Skywalker-Campaign-Tee-–-Small-1024x963.jpg)
And since you can’t make an ethnic Jew / agnostic presidential candidate look like Jesus, Luke Skywalker would have to do. Besides, nearly everybody likes Luke Skywalker. And just maybe, he could take down the Evil Empire.
![](https://www.secretsantacruz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Bernie-Sanders-2016-Star-Wars-Tee-–-Small-990x1024.jpg)
Or maybe Bernie’s not Luke Skywalker: just elderly, angry Bernie Sanders — on an epic quest for justice and freedom? Maybe. A lot of young workers are angry; and a lot of old ones, too. They’re looking for a way forward.
That way won’t be Bernie. But it will be someone, or some organization or movement. And they had better have read the manual on light sabers.