Me at the Madison rally for Bernie!
Yes, yes it truly was! :)
I'm not trying to brag or anything ( -- OK, I totally am), but it was so fucking cool seeing a Bernie Sanders rally with 10,000 of my closest friends!
I drove down from the progressive mecca of Green Bay to meet up with my good friend Auntie Neo Kawn at her Madison home. zenbassoon also met us at ANK's house and came to the rally, too! We all went out for a "hipster meal" before the rally, according to ANK (who wanted us to have the true Madison experience), so we got some damned platter with five different types of cheeses for, ya know, the liberal cheese connoisseur types. LOL. I had a really strange hamburger with ethically-raised cow and a sourdough bun that was twice the size of the burger.
... but the burger also had french fried onion rings on it, so, uh. Here's to your health or something?
I felt like I was back in Boulder. :)
ANK and her husband, Mr. ANK, were the perfect hosts! I can only speak for myself, but they made me feel extremely welcome in their house, what with the "mi casa es su casa!" general attitude towards my presence there. We actually had a mini-argument over who was going to pay the parking lot fee at Alliant Energy Center, wtf.
zenbassoon and I also met ANK's 16-year-old son, who I will only refer to as Dawg, because (according to his mother) he think he's a badass playa. The kid is a sweetheart, and was so excited to go to his first rally! He told me that he only had Republican friends, but I'll bet he tells them all about this experience. I was sitting next to him at the rally, and whenever Bernie would say something profound, Dawg would turn to me and say, "Well, that is very true! He's right!"
Heh. And another progressive is borne! Weep, Republicans everywhere, weep!
Because we got there late on accounta the Madison hipster meal, we spent zero time in line. We got to the Alliance Energy Center a bit after 6 pm, parked, and went in. There was a really bad band playing songs at the entrance, but it was kind of funny.
Auntie Neo Kawn and I wore orange feather boas, which someone on Dkos recommended, so it would be easier for Kossacks to find us. ANK also wore her Packer Santa hat, as promised. As far as I can tell, the only person who noticed the bright orange boas asked me what they were for, and I mentioned that I was a regular on Daily Kos and we were trying to find some other Kossacks. The lady let me know that she was a lurker, but she knew the website even knew who I was! Huh, how strange.
I gauged the crowd to be mostly middle class and white. All ends of the age spectrum were there, from babies to kids dragged there by their thoroughly annoying parents to excited high school kids to college activists to mothers and fathers and gay folks and hippies and older Americans. It bothered me that the minority attendance was so small. :/
Bernie is going to have to work on that, for real.
John Nichols was the opening act for Bernie and I have to say that, uhm, I was not that impressed. First of all, I thought he was some no-name politician from the Wisconsin legislature - I didn't get that this was John Nichols, the journalist. I completely missed that part.
Sadly, though, I was not alone in the feeling that Nichols kind of sucked. The crowd was a bit aghast that John Nichols suggested that he didn't need to "endorse" Bernie, and that this isn't what the progressive movement is supposed to be about. Dude went on and on, too, oy -- how he wasn't going to tell us who to vote for and that the Sanders campaign wanted him to promote the website for Sanders, but yadda yadda yadda, he just couldn't do that. zenbassoon said Nichols was trying to be too clever by half, but he ended up sounding like a monumental disingenuous douchenozzle in the process. It was a bit unnerving.
Senator Sanders came out and, of course, burned all the shit right up! He was amazing, and I am now one hurtin' puppy: I yelled so loud, and for so long, that I actually lost my voice. I can kinda talk, but it comes out as squeaks and grunts. Ha - the things I'll do for politics!
Bernie mentioned that his wife of 27 years was with him last night, and I then realized how little I know about Bernie's personal life. According to his stump speech, he has 4 kids and 7 grandchildren! Damn, I had no friggin' idea! Seriously!
That's primarily because Bernie Sanders focuses on the issues, and only the issues. He is as transparent as a glass-sliding door, so I have no need to even know anything about his personal life.
I'm so goddamned excited now! The man could pull the whole fucking thing off, no lie. It's making me hopeful in a way I haven't been in ages, and that's a good thing. Anyone who inspires us to want to be better people is a godsend.
GO BERNIE GO! FEEL THE BERN!