A Short Description of A Bernie Sanders Rally

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.

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