"It is not just about electing a president, it's about creating a political revolution."
New York, New York: 31,000 people filled Washington Square Park in NYC on Monday, April 11th, to hear the words of what many would call "the millennial man."
I stepped off of the subway at 3:00PM, two hours before the gates of the park were even open, and there were four lines of an estimated 200 people in each, trying to enter the park.
This, my friends, is what we call a political revolution.
Something unique to the Sanders campaign is the friendliness and, for lack of a better word, intimacy, found between his supporters. Everyone I asked to interview was cordial—which was a relief, since I was fearful after seeing articles like this one, of other reporters' experiences during this election season.
The rally began with a musical performance by Vampire Weekend, an alternative pop band who often writes or includes subliminal atheist messages in their music, check out "The Unbelievers" from their latest album, "Modern Vampires of the City." The musical performance was a nice touch, however, eerily indicative of our societal state.
Tim Robbins, an American actor and native New Yorker who is voting for Sanders, kicked off the speeches with the infamous slogan: "This is what democracy looks like." Robbins hinted at the "Steady stream of propaganda" which is overtaking the democratic party currently.
Democrats nationwide are voting for Clinton because of superficial reasons--some assume she is going to win anyways, some agree with Sanders' policies, but work for one of the Super PACs (which are currently endorsing her), and some who are just blatantly hypnotized by her rhetoric and calculated syntax--which is ultimately her goal.
Nonetheless, Robbins went on to highlight the fact that the establishment's narrative, which would be that Clinton is the Democratic nominee, has been ingrained into our brains via the mainstream media (for more on the current media blackout click here), saying that:
"Bernie is not the democratic party insider that will bow down to the elites... We are done with that. We are done with compromising our ideals... [We] have been told by mainstream media that he doesn't matter, that he's un-electable."
Physician and health care activist, Dr. Paul Y. Song, is currently under fire for saying "Medicare-for-all will never happen if we continue to elect corporate Democratic whores who are beholden to big pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us," to which he later apologized for via Twitter.
Oops.
As the rally continued, so did the speeches. Tom Fiegen, a current US Senate candidate from Iowa, human rights activist, and Executive Director of the Arab Association of New York, Linda Sarsour, the Vice President of Transport Workers Union (TWU), J.P. Fascio, Ohio senator, Nina Turner, the President of the Communications Workers Association (CWA), Chris Sheldon, Actress and Activist, Rosario Dawson, Actor Spike Lee, and finally--Senator Bernie Sanders.
Sanders Began his speech acknowledging the power of unions and "tipped his hat" off to the CWA for "standing up to a greedy corporation."
The crowd lit up like wildfire, and suddenly the 31,000 audience members were entranced. Sanders went along to address his various policies which can be found on his webpage.
Sanders ended his rally discussing the fact that "healthcare is a right of all people, not a privilege," and that in our country, "the status- quo is not working for ordinary Americans and they are asking themselves--"Why should we accept more income and wealth inequality in America than any other major country on Earth?"
Which leads me to ask you: Why?
Why are you accepting it? Why are you allowing the progression of climate change, the wage gap between women and men working the same job, the unavailability of health care--or the argument that it is not a human right, the exploitation of workers, the hundreds of thousands of dollars students are put in debt--just to find themselves unemployed after graduation. The mass incarceration of African Americans.
The undermining of other religions or people unfamiliar to us. We need to overcome our own hubris in order to grow, and looking at the five presidential candidates we have today: Sanders is our only hope. If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself in the video below.
