The day before the NH
primary I attended the Bernie Sanders rally at the University of New
Hampshire's hockey rink in Durham.
These notes offer a
general perspective on the events of a political rally and a specific
introduction into the themes and slogans of Sanders' campaign.
There was a long
line to enter the arena, but inside most of the seats were available
to anyone. At the bottom, the ice was covered, allowing for a
standing area. It seemed like one needed a special ticket to be in
this area, so I took a seat (of which there were plenty empty at
7:00), in the stands. From the seat one could see a raised platform
for the band and the speakers.
The event opened with some
music by rock band Sunflower Bean. They covered “Our Generation,”
played their own songs, and in between mentioned some of Sanders'
slogans: Not Me. Us, We Fight for Bernie, and Bernie Beats Trump.
I'd never heard of the band before but they were energetic and
enjoyable.
The opening act ended at
7:30, and the first speaker stepped onto the stage at 7:40pm. By
then the stadium was packed to capacity. The UNH campus organizer
for the Sander's campaign (a Umass Amherst alumni) spoke for five
minutes about the Green New Deal, and Healthcare as a Human Right.
From 7:45 to 7:50, Andru Volinsky, a member of the
Executive Council of New Hampshire, endorsed better pay for teachers,
stronger gun laws to protect students, and said, “vote like your
life depends on it, because it does.”
The first big name speaker
was Sanders' national surrogate, and former Ohio State Senator, Nina
Turner. She regularly defends Bernie on TV, and it isn't difficult
to see why. Though she only spoke for ten minutes, she was the most
energetic, effective, and fiery speaker of the night. She reminded
the crowd of Sander's pledge to continue FDR's work, quoting the
former President's 1963 Madison Square Garden speech. In it FDR said
that big businesses, monopolies, reckless banks, and war profiteers:
“... are unanimous in their hate for me – and I welcome their
hatred.” Sanders has repeatedly emphasized this phrase in his
speeches. Nina Turner also favorably compared Martin Luther King
Jr.'s platform condemning poverty, militarism, and racism to Bernie's
political platform. She mentioned College for All, and Medicare for
All. She condemned calls for practical political solutions, saying
that the poor could not afford the practical solutions advocated by
the wealthy. She accused Democrats who voted for Trump's massive
military budget as complicit in abandoning the American people. And
she said only Sanders had the conviction to be trusted. She
punctuated her speech with calls of, “Hello Somebody,” which led
to raucous cheers. It was vaguely reminiscent of the time I went to
see Michael Moore's 9/11 in theaters, with anger bubbling
occasionally into view. Turner closed by calling for the
cancellation of medical and student debt. Echoing the golden rule as
a law between nations and not just between people she said, “We
should want for our sisters and brothers in other lands, what we want
for ourselves.” She finished by asking everyone to raise their
hands, and said “With these hands,” we will build a better
future.
A
short five minute interlude by New Hampshire House Member Robert
Renny Cushing focused on opposition to the death penalty. He
credited Sanders' with stripping the death penalty from the
Democratic Party's political platform in 2016. Cushing condemned the
war on drugs, before stepping down for the next speaker.
Former New Hampshire House Member Mindy
Messmer spoke from 8:05 to 8:10 about the Green New Deal and the
Green Economy.
Messmer was followed by the oddest
speaker, former actress and 2018 New York gubernatorial candidate,
Cynthia Nixon. Nixon spoke for a good five minutes, to a smattering
of boos, about how much she loved Hillary Clinton, and how she voted
for her in the 2016 primary. Then she emphasized how Sanders' 2016
primary challenge changed the conversation in the USA. Every
Democratic candidate in 2020 placed their policies in relation to
Bernie's.
The speaker I knew best, but didn't
anticipate, was Cornel West, who spoke of a shared humanity, of
hating injustice, oppression, and fascism, but loving each other. He
also hinted at a hope for a global movement.
Sander's premier endorser, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, stepped to the mic at 8:25 and spoke for fifteen
minutes. Bernie, she said, would accept no corporate PAC money in
his campaign, because “in politics you get what you pay for”. If
a campaign funds itself with corporate money and the cash of
billionaires, those are the entities who will benefit. She said that
Sanders stood up for gender non-conformity in the 90's, that he was
one of the 67 House Representatives who voted against DOMA when
Clinton signed it into law, that Bernie was for the break up of ICE,
and supported a free and independent state of Palestine. The
campaign was focused on kicking Trump out the White House, but it
also was a political revolution. She encouraged the crowd to fight
for the least of us, to fight for someone you don't know. She closed
by saying that the United States would move forward under Bernie
Sanders, because we were not going back to the way things were before
Trump.
At 9:20, Bernie Sander walked onto the
stage with his family to a packed crowd. He began his speech with,
“Brothers and sisters... We have an unprecedented,
multi-generational movement.” He said the campaign won Iowa with
6,000 votes (Author's note: Iowa is still too close to call, and the
Sander's campaign asked this week for a recount. Sander's definitely
won the initial vote as he claimed, and the final vote, with 26.5% to
Buttigieg's 25.1%, but as of the final count had only 563.1 State
Delegate Equivalents to Pete's 563.2). Sanders called Trump a liar,
crook, bully, racist, sexist, xenophobe, homophobe, and religious
bigot. Then he reminded the crowd that Trump promised during the
2016 campaign to not cut healthcare, medicare, medicaid, or social
security. Trump has already begun to renege on his promises, said
Sanders.
Sanders called the economic system of
the United States, where three people own more than the bottom half,
where 1% earn more than 92%, where half of Americans live pay check
to pay check, and where 500,000 people sleep on the streets each
night, an immoral obscenity. The average tax payer, he informed the
crowd, pays more in taxes than giant corporations like Amazon, or
billionaires who manipulate the complex tax code. He said he would
overturn Citizen's United and remove the influence of money from
elections. He reiterated his support for a living wage backed by a
$15 minimum wage, and equal pay for equal work regardless of gender.
Sanders said more unions would strengthen American society, as would
universal childcare. With education as a right, a Sanders'
administration would triple funding for low income schools, ensure no
teacher made less than $60,000 a year, and offer every child an
opportunity to attend college or trade school without debilitating
loans.
He criticized past administrations for
bailing out the banks and reducing taxes on the wealthy, as socialism
for the wealthy. If the taxpayers could afford to rescue the
wealthy, we can afford to implement Medicare for All. The United
States pays the most per person for healthcare while covering less of
its population than other advanced nations. On the issue of climate
change, he accepted an endorsement from the Sunrise Movement, and
said he had the best plan for tackling the threat of global warming.
In addition to being the most aggressive, it would create 20 million
new jobs. He called for a sharp reduction in military spending both
by the United States, and across the globe, to fund his environmental
initiatives: the beating of swords into plowshares.
Sanders pledged to end:
A racist criminal justice system,
Cash bail,
Private prisons,
The war on drugs,
The demonization of undocumented
immigrants.
And to:
Expunge the record of every marijuana
conviction,
Reinstate DACA,
Break up ICE,
Create a path to citizenship,
Pass gun regulations with universal
background checks,
And ban assault weapons.
He said that abortion was a human
right, would choose justices who supported the Roe v. Wade decision,
and would pass a law codifying that decision.
Sanders concluded the rally by saying
he would stand up to moneyed interests and end the United State's
endless wars.
At last, at 9:20 pm, the Strokes took
the stage to play a forty minute concert in support of the campaign.
They opened with a cover of Burning Down the House, and then
played some of their hits, along with new music from their upcoming
album. While I liked the Strokes in college, and listened to some of
their music in advance of the event, I was disappointed by the music
in the stadium. The location was not wired for the concert. The
instruments sounded high pitched and scratchy, while the lead singer
was drowned out and difficult to hear. If someone attended only for
the forty minute concert after the two hour rally, they would have
been disappointed.
Also, I was interviewed during the
concert by a man who said he wrote for a newspaper in Spain. It was
an interesting night, and one worth attending.
Recent:
Relevant:
Comments
Post a Comment