'March for Bernie' Is an Occupy Wall Street Homecoming

Beside the woman wearing a Donald Trump mask and head-to-toe Barney the dinosaur costume, holding a sign constructed from cereal boxes that says, "FUCK YOU," a man brandishing his own sign declaring "I'M ON ACID" shouts, "Look out New York City, here we come!" And with that, Saturday's March for Bernie commences, as at least a thousand Bernie Sanders supporters pour out of Union Square, flooding Broadway on a march toward Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of Occupy Wall Street.

Before Trump/Barney can explain her outfit, or her support for the Vermont senator, the space is overrun by people taking the day's events far more seriously. "I've been recruiting people for the revolution since my first Bernie meet-up, in July," explains Rachel Bernstein, a local teacher, drawing me away from the spectacle. "There were only four people there. Back then, hardly anyone in New York knew who he was."

That's certainly not the case today – Sanders has come a long way since July. With the Iowa caucuses just days away, a wide variety of constituencies flock to Manhattan Saturday to show support for a candidate who, over the past six months, has slowly pulled himself out of underdog status in the race for the Democratic nomination.

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Halasa explains this seeming contradiction of being against the Democratic Party while marching for a Democratic candidate. "Even though it sounds weird, we're progressives against Hillary. The key campaign issue for us is money out of politics," she says, arguing Sanders is the only major party politician whom she can trust to not be influenced by corporate donations or the billionaire class.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/march-for-bernie-is-an-occupy-wall-street-homecoming-20160131