A Political Revolution

Sanders Campaign Rally, taken on my Galaxy S5

Today, I attended my second ever political rally. Bernie Sanders came to speak on Monroe Community College’s campus, so I asked a coworker to cover my tutoring shift (shout out!) and set out for the rally’s location, the Bill Gray Iceplex.

My first political rally was four years ago when Bill Clinton came to Lamar University’s campus in 2012 to campaign for local Democratic candidate Nick Lampson. I went to the rally largely because I wanted to see a former President, and also because my friend Zach (a staunch Democrat) talked me into not missing it. I was really only interested in the spectacle. At the time I was a Republican, mainly because my parents were, and I hadn’t formed strong political opinions yet. My friends and I got signs, cheered at the appropriate moments, and then dispersed. I don’t even remember what Clinton said, because I was only there to see what he looked like and spoke like; let me tell you, campaign rallies are way different when you feel passionately about the candidates and their platforms.

At the 2012 Lamar University Nick Lampson Rally, Featuring Bill Clinton

Today, as a left-leaning Democrat, I was excited when I heard Sanders would be coming to Rochester. 2012 Christine would not have awaked before dawn and stood in line from 6am until 8am in 35 degree weather. She certainly wouldn’t have done it alone. But that is exactly what I did today – and for those of you who know me well, you know how much I hate getting up early. It was cold and unpleasant, but I was ultimately glad that I went for two main reasons.

First, I gained a clearer understanding of Sanders’s campaign platform. Hearing Sanders’s stance on the issues from various sources pales in comparison to the passionate delivery of those principles in person. After participating in this gathering, I feel solidified in my support of Sanders. Although of a large portion of his speech was targeted towards labor issues because of Western New York’s labor demographic, Sanders took time in his speech to speak to different marginalized voters, talking to and about Latino, African American, and Native American voters specifically. He proclaimed, “This campaign is listening to a group of people whose voices are very rarely heard, and that is the Native American community.” Even in a predominantly Caucasian audience, the human rights of minority groups became a focal point of his speech, in addition to economic and student loan issues. Additionally in a campaign season loaded with pervasive, sexist rhetoric, hearing a candidate state unequivocally that we need a change in our professional treatment of women was incredibly important to me. On Equal Pay Day, significantly, Sanders highlighted that women across the country make $.79 on the dollar compared to men, concluding that “They want the whole damn dollar!”

Quality not Great, but Still Bernie

Secondly, I am encouraged by the sheer number of people committed to attending this rally. In my experience on the internet and in person, people are sometimes hesitant to stand up and say that they support equal pay for women, or that we should treat undocumented immigrants as people with basic human rights. Being surrounded by such an energetic crowd of supporters restored some of my faith in people’s compassion. The majority of the supporters there seemed invested in witnessing Sanders and his platform. I arrived at 6am, but some people had been in line since 4am! I heard attendees saying that they had missed out on shifts at work to be here, or that they had skipped classes to come to the event. I also spoke with a supporter who said that she had not been to a political rally since 1974, but she was in line today. Multiple times throughout the speech, the crowd drowned Sanders out with chants of “Bernie! Bernie!” and stamping on the bleachers.

In comparison, while Donald Trump has many staunch supporters, there are also many of his event attendees who are only interested in him as a spectacle, in a similar way that I viewed Bill Clinton’s rally in 2012. As a result, many people going to his rallies don’t actually support his platform. We can also see this in the astonishing number of protests to his events; Twitter user @Jordancentola highlights this difference, tweeting “I find it awesome how no one has to say ‘stay safe’ at Bernie rallies.” At this rally, I never felt unsafe, I saw no protestors, and the entire audience, as far as I could tell, was actively participating and very energetic about the message.

A major downside of this Democratic primary cycle has been how the candidates talk about each other on the campaign trail. As a Sanders supporter who would also cheerful vote for Hillary Clinton, I am distressed by this in part because the Democratic Party, if it wants to win in November, will have to come together behind one candidate at the end of this primary. While both candidates are definitely guilty of these attacks, rhetoric against Clinton (including that used by Sanders) frequently has a gendered component. Luckily, I didn’t see much of that in the speech Sanders gave today. Instead, he focused on their different positions on the issues as well as their different fundraising strategies – although, I think even this comparison isn’t completely devoid of gender bias, and I may talk about that in a later post.

Like anything, there were definite drawbacks to this experience. While the people in attendance made this an awesome experience, there were also some troubling aspects to the crowd as well. While I found Sanders’s discussion regarding Clinton fairly respectful, I cannot say the same thing for the audience. Many people, mainly women, were yelling things like “traitor” and “fuck her” during this portion of the speech. This vicious hate from the audience is, at least in my opinion, wildly misdirected. There were also the ever-present “BernieBros” waiting in line. A pair of high school seniors behind me were repeatedly referring to their classmates using homophobic slurs, in addition to their discussing one female classmate who they “wouldn’t fuck with because she’s so ugly.” I truly don’t understand how someone who actually supports this candidate could have these kinds of opinions; rather, I don’t see how they could not identify these opinions and words as fundamentally harmful to the idea of equality that seems to be at the heart of the Sanders campaign.

If you would like to read more about the rally I attended, links to news reports on the event are available here and here. You can also check out the hashtag #rocfeelsthebern for firsthand tweets and posts from the event.