2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumAngry Bernie Sanders, The Most Fun Candidate Running For President
LAS VEGAS The Bernie Sanders experience is now a touring block party.
For months, a Sanders event stood out for how ridiculously serious it was. Defying conventional political practice, Sanders wouldnt open with a joke, wouldnt keep it brief, and wouldnt tell people things were going to be all right just as long as they elected him. His nearly hour-long stump speech remains a vegans crisper drawer of policy vegetables, with basically no rhetorical fluff common to the conventional campaign speech.
But last year, Bernies massive crowds watched, rapt, as Sanders ticked off Americas ills and said they would never be cured with anything short of a full-scale reboot of the political left that transforms it into a never-surrender activist army. There wasnt much laughter, though there was plenty of cheering, and a lot of head shaking at the problems.
Something happened on the way to Sandersmentum, though: The Sanders stump speech has become a party anthem, his rallies a raucous, fun homecoming for his faithful. Everyone, including Bernie, is having a damn good time.
More: http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/angry-bernie-sanders-the-most-fun-candidate-running-for-pres#.pok2p76o5
H2O Man
(73,605 posts)Very good.
mikehiggins
(5,614 posts)Sing, dance, organize, win, repeat.
Sanders' campaign really is like Woodstock, which I say with absolutely no intention of insulting anyone.
We've had enough gloom and doom candidacies over the years, and depressingly depressing candidates running them, where every word, gesture and eyeblink is carefully choreographed by political pros.
Sanders is a "happy warrior" and the rest of us, for all the grievances and anger that have built up over the decades since VietNam (to note a cultural landmark) we are HAPPY to be able to stand up and fight.
This is a positive campaign, looking to make things BETTER. What could be wrong with that?
peacebird
(14,195 posts)GreenPartyVoter
(72,381 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)myrna minx
(22,772 posts)senseandsensibility
(17,130 posts)the mother holding her baby dressed as Bernie (complete with wig and glasses). Too funny. Oh, and the article is good, too! Thanks for posting, Lorien.
Lorien
(31,935 posts)TeeYiYi
(8,028 posts)...is my favorite:
TYY
pacalo
(24,721 posts)What thats like, from Sanders large Bonanza High School event here Sunday: When Sanders got to the part in his stump speech that mentions his average contribution, the crowd chanted Twenty! Seven! Dollars! in unison back at him. When he said the word huge, the crowd let out a collective yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. They did that twice, and Sanders loved it. When he mentioned the name Donald Trump, they booed loudly. Same goes for when he mentioned the Walton family.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)pacalo
(24,721 posts)azmom
(5,208 posts)On the donation site. I used to write it in, now I just click.
Love it.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)LWolf
(46,179 posts)99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)as it reminds me so much of the 60s, when millions of young people threw off
their shackles and blinders and said "fuck this shit! make love now war! give
peace a chance!" defying the wealthy power structures of their time.
And they had a damn good time doing it, and it scared the bejesus out of the
PTB. They couldn't wrap their tiny minds around it. it befuddled them no end.
GO BERNIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)fbc
(1,668 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)The bernie memes such as the saturday night fever video, the babies, the announcing of "feel the bern" to strangers and laughing as they shout it back with a smile and a shaking fist at the sky. This is a fucking blast.
No kidding.
Arazi
(6,829 posts)he has that certain je ne c'est quoi - Obama has it, Bill Clinton had it in his day.
- charisma and charm that's real, combined with a speech that's real.
It's such a breath of fresh air it's infectious
I love that picture!
But look to Camp Weathervane to dub in the Dean Scream!
Lorien
(31,935 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Matariki
(18,775 posts)Response to Lorien (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
asuhornets
(2,405 posts)This photo is Exhibit A: For Use In The General Election
arcane1
(38,613 posts)asuhornets
(2,405 posts)I was just being hypothetical.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)He connects for a reason, and if you're not angry you're either entitled or not paying attention.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)How great would it be to see them on the campaign trail together and hear people singing in unison, "well the dogs on <wall> street howl cause they understand if I could take one moment into my hands. Mister I'm not a boy, no I'm a man and I believe in the promised land."
How can we not love a campaign that says "even with all the ugliness, we're still optimistic."
And, of course this.....
dchill
(38,532 posts)A similar pic of Hillary to circulate ASAP. She wants to be fun, too!
That ought to be good.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)thereismore
(13,326 posts)the latest cultural icon, a muppet for adults.
Mike__M
(1,052 posts)Someone suggested that the article is showing Bernie's supporters as a bunch of silly fun-loving party-goers, as opposed to the sober pragmatic grown-ups on the other side. If it was intended to be negative, it backfired: thinking it would be taken as negative just shows how they don't get it, because as these comments show, we love it--yes, that's what Bernie's rallies are like (even way back in Portland, before we had memorized all the lines). Each rally is thousands of people reveling in the knowledge that we share the same ideals; thousands celebrating that we are thousands.
dchill
(38,532 posts)has Jonathan Capehart cobbling up a new story: That's Not Bernie Sanders!
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Either that, or they're writing lines like "America needs more than fun-sounding, crowd-pleasing slogans"
Beacool
(30,251 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)Envy is much the same.
Beacool
(30,251 posts)Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Arazi
(6,829 posts)and some attention to tax reform amongst a slew of other yummy stuff