Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumLast night Bernie Sanders was on Fire
Last edited Sat Oct 10, 2015, 02:03 PM - Edit history (2)
and Tucson felt the Bern!
You know I have to report here.
I brought an old friend of mine to see his first political rally ever. He is a teacher in AZ making $35,000 a year with a family to support as the sole earner. He has a special needs daughter and faces a lot of medical expenses each year and even with good healthcare this puts him just barely above the poverty line here. He was excited to go and experience something new and was on the fence between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
We arrived late and skirted the back of the crowd looking for a small bump that might allow us to see the stage, but all we could see were the people back dropping the speakers, barely. Looking around the crowd and knowing that one stadium up in Phoenix holds about 19,000, my guess was that the crowd size had swelled to around 9 to 10,000, but one speaker reported over 11K. It didn't matter there were a lot of people here per capita for a smaller town like Tucson, this was an enormous turnout bolstered by people coming from as faraway as Las Vegas and all over Arizone.
Other's have reported on the early speakers, some could be heard from the back and others couldn't. Then Bernie came on and the crowd lit up. Some of them actually lit up...
Bernie Sanders touched on every single issue in his platform and more. A few moments in to his speech he paused to acknowledge the two shootings on college campuses and said that while the families had all of our thought and prayers, that this was no longer enough. That real gun control measures must be put in place beginning with the obvious ones like closing gun show loopholes as well as increasing funding for mental health services. Tucson has certainly been touched by this kind of gun violence in the recent past and the crowd definitely showed their approval here.
He also spoke about Immigration and keeping families together. He spoke of his active engagement in writing comprehensive Immigration reform to allow the millions of people here to stay together. He spoke of family values and defined exactly what Republicans mean when they speak of family values, that they believe women should not have control over their own bodies as well as many other points completely debunking any notion that Republicans actually have one iota of support for families. He talked about the Dream Act as an example of a family value. He also said that immigrants to this country should be welcome and told a story of his family's immigration to the United States, how his Dad worked low wage jobs and they lived in a rent control apartment in New York always dreaming of owning a home, which never happened for them, but they did live the dream of getting two kids to college.
Then Bernie began talking about the middle class and the poor. He began by listing off a number of things that are needed to address income inequality, talking about how we can lift people out poverty and revitalize a disappearing middle class in this country. He spoke about making college tuition FREE in this country. He spoke about jobs and infrastructure. He went through a long list of things that would truly help restore us as the greatest, most prosperous nation on earth and then...he said..."yes, but you may ask how are we going to pay for all of this?" and what came next was I thought one of his best lines of the night among many...."Well". he said..."In 2008, the American People bailed out Wall Street, when I am President it will be time for Wall Street to bail out the American People!"
Oh fuck, yeah.
He spoke about equal pay for women, he spoke about equal rights for the LBGT community, he spoke about teachers and how poorly teachers are paid in this country.....I looked over at my guest and watched him yell out for the first time all night...."Hell yes!" He was felling the Bern.
Over an hour, Bernie Sanders covered just about every major domestic political topic in the US right now. I could not object to anything he had to say. I did try and take pictures, and as I went around to the side, I could see Bernie. There were also a ton of volunteers out with their laptops signing people up at Bernie's website. It was pretty much a seamless event. although with the overflow crowd, it could have used a few more speakers in the back.
For some perspective, Tucson is a city of just over 500,000 people. Several months ago, Phoenix drew 11,000 Sander's supporters. Phoenix is a city of 1.5 million people. A crowd of 11,000 in Tucson relates to that event as a 3 to 1 turnout per capita or is equivalent to turning out 33,000 in Phoenix....I wonder if the next Phoenix rally will hit those numbers....
Make no mistake, this is not just a campaign, it is a real movement.
As far as the crowd there goes...this is early in a campaign. A good number of these people will influence their friends and neighbors, they will deliver literature, contribute in small amounts, phone bank, volunteer, hold debate watch parties (which are springing up all over AZ and the rest of the country).
In other words...Bernie Sander's fire shot flames right off of that small stage into the crowd and put fire in everyone's bellies....That is how you feel the Bern!
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Make no mistake, this is not just a campaign, it is a real movement.
merrily
(45,251 posts)The revolution shall not be televised. It shall be rallied.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)haikugal
(6,476 posts)And 'fight' can mean other than violence...however I lived through the 60's so sometimes helmets are needed...
The police have returned to 'pig' status in many ways.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Yes, helmets may be needed. And gas masks, bandanas, bullet proof vests...and even then....
haikugal
(6,476 posts)People get hurt even when peacefully protesting...
Or driving, walking, shopping while black...
We have a militarized police force and they plan to use it I'm sure.
I like the sound of a bloodless revolution but I don't know if it will be.
merrily
(45,251 posts)I don't think we will have an armed revolution. If people seem ready to die, they will do something, ala the New Deal or the Great Society and then take most of it back after the moment has passed. It's worked before and they will figure it can work again.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)desire for democracy and equality for all.
I agree that they will do that...same as before.
I don't know what will happen...it could go very differently this time.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)SandersDem
(592 posts)He was still a bit concerned about Bernie's ability to win in the general. As I drove him home I mentioned recent polling vs Republican candidates and how he stands up better against them than HRC does. That seemed to win him over. He definitely loved what he had heard from Bernie.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)I saw Bernie in Portland where we had 28,000, which was electrifying ... your excellent report
on Tucson has me feeling the Bern all over again.
PS - lol .. i just noticed that the DU spell-checker doesn't try to correct "Bern" anymore..
thanks Skinner.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)as in Phoenix. I'm pretty sure that Tucson is still a lot more politically liberal than that metropolis to the north.
I've lived in both cities. Grew up partially in Tucson, graduated high school there (I'll be there next weekend for a reunion) some fifty years ago now, and then four years in Phoenix in the mid-80's. I vastly prefer Tucson, although I doubt I'll ever live in that state again.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)movement - whatever it is, I'm LOVIN' IT!
leftcoastmountains
(2,968 posts)Watched it on Bernie2016TV but enjoyed reading it from
an attendee's perspective.
Duval
(4,280 posts)Ptah
(32,983 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)How did your ears hold up?
SandersDem
(592 posts)got home at about 2:30 AM, had a very long drive back to Phoenix, via Ajo....
My ears held up great, but only because I was at the back of the crowd and everybody was yelling towards Bernie.
hopemountain
(3,919 posts)excellent!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Yay, Bernie!
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)DrBulldog
(841 posts)He gave a fabulous 20-minute interview to Chuck Todd.
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)Thanks for the thread, SandersDem.