Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign for president received a big boost Sunday when as many as 28,000 showed up for a high-decibel rally at the Moda Center. The crowd packed the basketball arena - with a capacity of up to 19,000 — as thousands more couldn’t get inside and listened in on loudspeakers. A Moda Center official, Michael Lewellen, estimated the crowd at the free event totaled 28,000. “Portland, you have done it better than anyone else,” Sanders said as he opened a speech that lasted a full hour.
For those of you convinced that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is the definition of quixotic, the political equivalent of tilting at windmills, I’d offer up the Senator’s Sunday night visit to the Rose City. His rally was originally scheduled to be held in the Memorial Coliseum, which seats about 13,000. When it became clear earlier in the week that more space would be necessary, it was moved next door into the Moda Center, home of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Even the largest event space Portland has to offer wasn’t enough to accommodate everyone who wanted to see Sen. Sanders. 19,000 people shoehorned their way into the Moda Center…and 9,000 were left over to listen to Sen. Sanders on loudspeakers outside. It was the largest crowd to date for a Sanders rally (in fact, for ANY declared 2016 candidate- take that, Clintonistas), and all indications are that he brought it.
Granted, it’s still early- primary season is still about six months away- but the excitement that Sen. Sanders has been able to generate appears to be genuine and- most importantly- gaining momentum. Those who consider Sanders’ campaign to be a quaint but meaningless distraction might be in for a surprise. If nothing else, it will get people thinking about what being a “democratic socialist” actually means (no, it doesn’t mean supporting the Soviet Union). And Sen. Sanders may just force other candidates to start talking about problems AND what they propose to address and solve them.
Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is. And if we know that in countries, in Scandinavia, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, they are very democratic countries, obviously. The voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States.
In those countries, health care is the right of all people. And in those countries, college education, graduate school is free. In those countries, retirement benefits, childcare are stronger than in the United States of America. And in those countries, by and large, government works for ordinary people and the middle class, rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the billionaire class.
No, recognizing the accomplishment of countries and thinking that we can absolutely do better isn’t socialism. It’s understanding that it’s good to recognize that America isn’t #1 in everything, and that there really are things we can learn from other countries. Sanders seems determined that America not continue making the same mistakes that have plagued us for years because no one can see any political capital to be gained from changing things. He’s tackling issues (like racism) and income inequality with actual ideas and concrete proposals instead of the normal brain-numbling pablum and simplistic bromides that have characterized Indecision 2016 thus far.
If Sen. Sanders can draw 28,000 in the Liberal bastion that is Portland on an August Sunday evening, think about what he might be able to do during a general election campaign. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton doing the same thing and having anywhere near the same impact? I’m not certain I can.
The truth is that Bernie Sanders can absolutely win in November, 2016. Eight years ago, Barack Obama was still an afterthought at the same early stage in the campaign…and yet he went on to defeat Hillary Clinton. The same thing could happen again…and it will, if enough people get up off their couches and vote their conscience. It’s time we decided to take our country back from the haters, the ideologues, and the corporations.
Who’s going to join me?
