Bernie Sanders came to town Friday night, and Tucson showed up. More than an hour before the event began, a line of supporters snaked around Reid Park waiting to get into the outdoor performance center. How many were there? Thousands. A Friday night TV news report said 5,000. Isabel Garcia told the crowd they numbered 11,000. The Star said the crowd was probably over 7,000. Whatever the exact number, it was a packed house.
The crowd ranged in age: there were 20-to-30 year olds, middle aged people and older attendees in reasonably equal numbers. Sanders’ Tucson appeal doesn’t have an age demographic. The crowd was predominantly white, though not exclusively so. Tucson’s minority communities were well represented.
The Tucson crowd may have had a white majority, but the entertainment and speakers were definitely more “Tuk-son” than “Too-sohn.” A mariachi band warmed things up before the event. Isabel Garcia, a local activist in Hispanic causes and other social issues, spoke first and introduced the other speakers. A young woman from the Apache Nation spoke passionately about the need to protect sacred Apache grounds from being taken over by private interests. Ten-year-old Bobby de la Rosa spoke about his mother, who was deported to Mexico, and the struggles his father, brothers and sister faced coping with her loss to the family, a story which was told recently in the Star. (Sanders said later that he was used to being introduced by local dignitaries, but “I have never heard people—young people—give the kind of statements and stories I’ve heard in Tucson.”) The national anthem was sung a cappella by twin sisters, high school students from Nogales.
And then, of course, there was Rep. Raúl Grijalva, the first Congressperson to endorse Sanders. He said he was asked by other members of Congress why he endorsed Bernie.
“I answered, ‘Why not?’ Bernie’s my friend, and beyond friendship, I agree with his values, I agree with the solutions he’s bringing to the American people, and finally, it’s way past time when we had a campaign and a voice that speaks truth to power.”
Then it was Sanders’ turn. He spoke for almost an hour to an attentive, receptive crowd. Nearly every sentence ended with an exclamation point, usually accompanied a hand thrust out to his side, finger pointing at the issue he seemed to be indicating was “Right over there! Look at it!”—as if a mere exclamation point at the end of a sentence wasn’t emphatic enough to capture how important, how unbelievably important, it is to focus on the problems this country faces and what needs to be done to fix them. Bernie wins his audiences over with passion and ideas, not polish.
The point that united his speech was stated early and often. “This is a people’s campaign,” he said, “not a billionaires’ campaign!” Again and again, he hit on income inequality, the number of people living in poverty, which is unconscionable in the richest country in the world, and the dangerous power a few very rich people have to dominate the country’s politics thanks to the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” ruling.
It was a substantive, energetic, issues-oriented speech that touched on nearly every issue important to progressive Democrats. Only a few times did Sanders use the “When I am president” construction, and never the “On my first day in office I will . . .” ploy. He made a few “promises” about what he would do, but even then, he was talking more about what the country needs than his own political aspirations.
The audience was with Sanders the whole time, alternately quietly attentive, cheering and booing in response to what he said. (When Sanders mentioned the Koch Brothers, the loud, immediate booing from the audience seemed to catch Sanders by surprise. “We have a very informed crowd here in Tucson,” he said, almost to himself.) Three lines near the end of the speech brought the night’s most thunderous cheers, and chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” When he talked about the travesty of voter suppression, Sanders spoke of the right he would grant to every adult to vote. “If you’re 18 years of age, you’re registered to vote, end of discussion!” That got a huge response. Possibly the longest sustained applause came when he said, “Every public college and university must be tuition free!” It’ll be expensive, he acknowledged, but he’d pay for it by taking away tax breaks for Wall Street and using the money for education. “When Wall Street collapsed,” he said, “they were begging the taxpayers, ‘Please bail us out.’ Now it’s Wall Street’s turn to bail out the middle class!”
The third big applause line came when Sanders said, “No president will fight harder to combat institutional racism!”
Only one issue, early in the speech, got a less-than-exclamation-filled presentation from Sanders: gun regulation. He hit all the right notes. His suggestions for legislation were what you would expect from a Democratic candidate. But that was the one point when he sounded more like your kindly Uncle Bernie talking sense to the audience than the fiery orator of the rest of the speech. He made no mention of the NRA, which has become a regular part of Hillary Clinton’s discussion of gun violence and gun regulation. He made a point of admitting his state of Vermont has virtually no gun laws, but he went on to say they understand the need for common sense regulation to stem the tide of gun violence. He was more passionate about the need for “a revolution in mental health care!” as a way of dealing with gun violence than about the topic of gun regulation. It’s the one soft spot in his otherwise uniformly progressive campaign, but this has always been a weak issue for him, and he was making sure he couldn’t be accused of hypocrisy by jumping on the issue too hard to win over voters.
The speech was over and the crowd dispersed. I waited in the backed-up parking lot, which was at a standstill. Then a few police motorcycles with their lights flashing moved slowly down a lane cleared for the motorcade, followed by three cars, then more motorcycles. Bernie had left the building.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2015.
Look at the waste of time. America will never have a socialist president.
Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson were more socialist than Sanders Is. So the contention that US will never have a socialist president is flawed.
CA must be a UA student–learning history the politburo way! The Clinton clan will destroy Bernie thanks to their, privilege, money and 250 character assassination staff! If we’re not careful we’ll trade the appeaser, race baiter in chief for the bitch in chief!
GO CARLY!
I had RSVP’ed for the Sanders event, but decided not to attend when I heard Raul Grijalva was speaking.
Sanders is dead right in his policy priorities, which hold out more hope for scaling down some of the excesses in our plutocracy than any other presidential candidates’ priorities do.
We could use a little of this kind of leadership on the local level, instead of unbelievably fat compensation packages for administrators, poverty level wages for educators, chronic teaching position vacancies in classrooms serving poor students, battles waged against the desegregation authority , and the outsourcing of substitutes, to name just a few of the social justice problems in TUSD. So perhaps before Raul makes a spectacle of his support for Sanders, he should have a “heart to heart” with his daughter. The kinds of things she’s presiding over locally call into question how committed the family is to the cause of social justice, and make “Dad” look like a hypocrite when he says things like “I agree with [Sanders’] values, I agree with the solutions he’s bringing to the American people, and finally, it’s way past time when we had a campaign and a voice that speaks truth to power.”
Actually closer to 13000 in attendance from what I understand. The ampitheater sits 7K and there was almost as much overflow so I think the 13K number was accurate. The right has been yelling socialist at Obama for 8 years now, they did themselves a nice disservice by taking the sting out of the word. Bernies message about the playing around in Washington and the backroom deals of big money and politicians resonates too well. He will be the next POTUS. Keep hating haters, all you do is strengthen his supporters resolve to make sure he is. #feelthebern
Look at the waste of time! America Will NEVER Have a BLACK President. Your narrow minded acceptance of the Status Quo is the definition of defeatism. You don’t disagree agree with what he says you just have no faith in the ability of the American people to make it a reality. You are a weak and overcome individual that has given up on hope. Continue your life of slavery building the pyramids of wealth for the chosen few. I pity you…..
Senator Sanders is worthy of much appreciation and respect for raising the issues he has and for the support he has garnered. However, his weak position against the gun lobby and his comparable lack of executive experience cause me to give more attention to former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor Martin O’Malley.
Throughout his career, O’Malley has both spoken and acted in a truly progressive manner. he has also been the most specific and detailed of all the candidates on both sides of the aisle when issuing his policy proposals. To learn more about what O’Mallet stands for, check out this site: https://martinomalley.com/15-goals/
The Democratic candidates will be debating on CNN on Tuesday night. O’Malley will not only be able to bring more substance to the stage than Sanders, but he will also be more direct in taking on the Clintons and their sense of entitlement to our party’s nomination. For everyone who wants a Democratic nominee who will be both a progressive fighter and someone with a long record of achievement, give Martin O’Malley a look.
@CA need a tissue to wipe away the tears when your beloved socialist Bernie Sanders doesn’t win and definitely due to his age is not going to last much longer on earth . Go tell your six figure salary socialist hypocrite that is using tax dollars to tour America and talk about pay inequality. How about a ethics and ethos check before he starts to ramble on about his crap.
@ mboston funny cause you failed big time. Socialism can’t survive without capitalism. Go ask all those old soviets about equal pay. Yeah I like how they were paid in material not actual money. Go do 40 hours of work and get paid with 20 bras as a man. Try to eat with that. They had to trade around to survive. Everysingle country that is a socialist or communist are garbage. Yeah those countries don’t have their rich elite people in them…. You guys are hilarious trying to actual think its gonna work.
No better place to find thousands eager for other people’s money than Tucson.
Problem is, all the people with the money have left or are leaving.
I love the way the guy makes one of his quips and makes a stern face and the crowd goes nuts, what a bunch of no mind boobs!
It’s a shame there’s so much negativity here. One of the many great things about Sanders is his determination to speak to and work towards people’s dreams, rather than fears. He is also the only candidate brave enough to speak clearly about his positions on the major issues that affect US, the individuals that comprise our nation. Last night he also outlined how these goals can be realistically and effectively achieved. Our nation is in such a bad place right now and we need a president who is willing to take the bold actions necessary to save it. VIVA Bernie Sanders!!
Same song and dance we have already been given and nothing is happening yet. Nothing is free and if you believe that I have some ocean front real estate in Sedona I want to talk to you about. Rich people are not giving up their money or at least the people like Pelosi, Reid, Feinstein, McCain or obama to name a few. Not a lot of corporations left that obama hasn’t run out to other countries. The businesses that are still here has to have money coming in to pay a higher wage. You are aware that they have other expenses besides wages……right? Big corporations have left and are leaving because of EPA regulations and getting screwed by the crooked IRS and it is just cheaper in the long run to move to another country. Maybe if some of you nitwits would take a business class to learn how a business is ran …..no I don’t think that would help because you only see ‘free’ and don’t really care who pays for it. Oh did good old Bernie tell you he would have to raise taxes to cover all that stuff? Please do some research on socialist countries and see how it really works. You just might be surprised.
Amazing how many trolls keep talking Socialism when they don’t really understand it… and confuse Sanders’ Democratic Socialism with something they heard during the Reagan years. And yeah, I agree that some research on Socialist countries won’t hurt… if you want to see what free college or free health care could look like. Along with free child care and maternity/paternity leave? Oh the things you can have money for when you stop listening to the Imperialists and their demands for more weapons to control the world.
Cascabel please enlighten us with some examples of this working in other countries.
People will love Bernie Sanders as the next POTUS, which he is going to be. Sure, their will be doubters, haters and people making personal attacks against WE THE PEOPLE! WE THE PEOPLE are waking up and standing strong with the cornucopia of human values, traits and genuine policies that are going to continue in this country. #FeelTheBern
The Washington Post first said 11,000 and then upped it to 13,000.
@ Cascabel amazing how stupid you are. Yeah how about giving away 90% of your income to others? I bet you wouldn’t. So shut it. You can label Socialism all you want paint it any color key word still is SOCIALISM moron. its all the same. Socialist, communist, nationalist, Marxist ect.. same!
Cascabel or anyone that would like to answer the question pleas enlighten us with some examples of socialism working in other countries. You all keep saying we don’t understand so here is your chance to show us examples in other countries.
Capitalism built this country…socialism is destroying it. Bigger crowd here than Phoenix? Not surprised. We are the public dole.
Capitalism built this country…socialism is destroying it. Bigger crowd here than Phoenix? Not surprised. We are the public dole.
I’m always amazed by people who pay taxes but are ashamed to expect services in return. 47%, lazy, something-for-nothing—these ideas are all promoted by people who want your taxes collected in tribute to them rather than for the benefit of you and your family.
This is the great success of oligarchic propoganda. If Sanders pulls ahead, Ted Cruz et all will start calling him a communist. That’ll probably work on the same people. But when a supposed “taker” is elected, they’ll console themselves by cheating at tax time.
There was a day in America (I do remember) when you could disagree with a person endorsing policies without creepy name calling, shallow thinking and instant knee jerk reactions. Now winners win by whining and using attack ads, pandering to a nation of (not very rich) citizens who vote against their own interests again and again. One thing I like about Bernie Sanders is his fearless, no nonsense approach to the negatives – as the Ranking Member on the Senate Budget Committee, he knows the numbers and consistently tells it like he sees it – that 1% of Americans take nearly all new income in this country – every year. He may not win the office, but he speaks with conscience about it all.
I agree that there was a time when we could disagree without name calling and its sad that its in the past. I don’t understand at ALL the heat I see in these comments. Lots of blasting socialism for not “working” (and yes, I have spent time in a socialist country, and am proud of it–both my stay and the country) and yes it had problems. More importantly, do you all who are so critical of socialism really believe that our form of CAPITALISM is working? I don’t, and neither does Bernie, and neither do the thousands of people who show up to hear him. So lets not frame this as if there is an economic system that WINS and one that LOSES–I’d say we haven’t reached perfect yet with either of them or any of them. I mean, unless you are willing to accept the corporate welfare that leads to truly grotesque income inequality and call that “success”!!
I have heard the term ‘unfettered capitalism’ often and it is in and of itself created by unrestrained greed by the rich and those who benefit from their greed. Schools, medicine and prisons should not be for profit. I just read another ‘for profit ‘ college is not educating and taking students’ money. We have more people in prison than any other developed countries by 10. It is truly institutionalized racism. I see drugs costs are sky-high and the experiment in charter schools is a terrible failure as demonstrated by the segregation that has occurred. I think competition has its place but not in these areas. So we need to do some things for the good of the country that everyone pays for according to their means. There is nothing right about a country that has destroyed the middle class by taking the power to negotiate away from unions in many sectors( ‘right-to-work’ doesn’t seem to ever have helped AZ) as well as keeping the minimum wage low so the rich can get richer and then the poor are demonized. No we need Bernie to create more balance in our country and yes many said President Obama could not be elected and he was.
I was at the event Friday evening down front where I could look out at the crowd looking toward Bernie and there were lots and lots of folks out there, all sorts, all ages, pretty much all enthusiastic. Bernie is of course not a socialist if socialism means government ownership of the means of production. It really only dawned on me yesterday that his advocacy of Medicare for All and tuition-free public college education aren’t the results of wanting more government but a recognition that costs of health care and higher education have expanded beyond the capacity of not only the poor but even the middle class to afford them. And we can pay for such ‘largesse’ by taxing the haves a tad more than we do the have-nots like you and me, and as Bernie said in Tucson, by taxing Wall Street financial transactions….. oh and perhaps by cutting down our ‘defense’ spending to a rational level. I’m not sure he has said that but I say it. To my mind Bernie’s socialism is just a continuation of the New Deal, which remains to be completed after 80+ years. Bernie wants what FDR told Frances Perkins before his inauguration: “We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.”
filled with the same losers that voted for Obama,,, socialism does not work,,, TRUMP 2016 !!!!
Even Ayn Rand wrote that capitalism only worked when everyone who participated followed basic rules of morality and ethical interaction; her rationale for saying that capitalism is the only acceptable ethical system. The problem today is that the basic rules have either been severely bent or simply ignored for the sake of greed. Cheaters on Wall Street who lied to small investors (i.e., they pushed stocks they knew were going to crash) were never prosecuted after 2008 because the Wall Street crowd poured millions and millions of their ill gotten wealth into reactionary ads and loud mouth politicians who made sure that “regulation” became a deadly dirty word. Howard Roark and John Galt would probably condemn these awful, low talent people and their hideous version of capitalism.
Trump is the only logical choice at this point.
Bernie has no way to pay for any of his proposals, other than, “tax the rich”. I am not a rich man, but I am also not stupid, we can’t just keep printing money to fix America’s problems.
Trump wants to enforce our laws, deport non-American criminals and put NAFTA in the garbage, where it belongs.
Why does the media constantly attack Trump? Are any of you robots going to do any research past the first sentence of the first article on the first page of a web page/paper? Read something that is not owned by Soros or Murdock?
I want America to be great again. Trump 2016.
Safier believes in White Guilt and White privilege.
There has just got to be something else that Sanders could offer in exchange for votes. How about Medicare and SSI benefits if “you just don’t feel like working?” $40 per hour? You betcha’. Free cars, free food, what else can he promise you, that will not last?
Socialism always runs out of donors.
CBS interviewed David Koch yesterday. He says he opposed Bush and all the wars. He is actually liberal, and that both parties are destroying our country. He feels the hope of changing the US is worth living with the death threats.
The media made him your target and I don’t think you know him at all.
I can’t let that last comment pass. David Koch is a libertarian to the max. I know enough for there is enough real information out there and his father was one of the beginners of the John Birch Society and later Mc Carthyism. Read ” Wrapped in the Flag” by Claire Conners. He is an elitist to the max and no definition of liberal or even conservative that I know. Yes the Tea Party is controlled and manipulated and funded by the Koch brothers. David S. I realize you may need to delete this but I couldn’t let that go. There is so much information out there about who the Koch brothers are and their father ( who they are truly following) that I can’t let huge lies like that go. Claire Conners grew up in a JBS home and she saw this coming a long time ago. Everyone should read her book before the lies start flooding the scene.
Guardians, watch CBS Sunday morning and hear it for yourself. Those were his comments. They cited a 20 year family feud involving the company and I don’t know all the brothers names, but it is very interesting. He has donated millions to the United Negro College Fund and they showed video of Obama praising him.
It was Charles that appeared on the show.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/charles-koch-actually-seems-kind-of-awesome/
7,000. 11,000. What difference does it make? Each and every one of them had their hand out. We are doomed.
Donald Trump 2016. If you truly love America, you will vote for the one person who is not bought and paid for by Corporations and special interests.
Please note all the “Likes” on pro Bernie posts have been rigged, over 100 individual people visited, read and upvoted those statements?
I could easily turn my TOR on and vote repeatedly with a different IP address too. Except I won’t, because I have integrity and don’t have to cheat for my candidate.
Bernie’s stance on illegal immigration:
Rated 0% by FAIR, indicating a voting record loosening immigration; Dec 2003
Sanders scores 0% by FAIR on immigration issues
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, non-profit, public interest membership organization of concerned citizens united by their belief in the need for immigration reform.
FAIR seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest—more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year.
The ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization’s preferred position.
improve border security
stop illegal immigration
promote traditional immigration rates
Feel the Bern = Sentir la Quemadura