Crossposted from
Fifth of State
History was made last night, Sen. Bernie Sanders campaign organized a meet up at more than 3,000 locations around the country with over 100,000 participants. Never before has a campaign been able to drum up such grassroots support in such large numbers this early in a presidential primary. The numbers are only exceeded by similar meet ups by Barack Obama about a month before the 2012 general election, and not by much. I attended such an event for Sanders at the Hagen Ranch Public Library in Delray Beach, FL. The diverse crowd of about 100 participants included an eclectic mix of tattoos and skinny jeans scattered amongst the expected support stockings and hearing aids in this retirement mecca by the sea. The enthused crowd was led by a pair of dedicated yet well informed political neophytes who’s combined age of 40 was about half of that of the majority of the attendees. Reid Millman 19, and Eric Morales 21 have never voted in a presidential election due to their age, but that doesn’t mean that they haven’t been paying attention to politics, stirring them into action to support the grassroots campaign of the senior Senator from Vermont.
Reid and Eric, two of the four founders of the People’s America PAC, were proficient in answering the crowd’s questions about everything from how to register to vote to how to deal with your conservative father. They were thrown a bit of a curveball when one octogenarian asked them where they could register to vote offline, a question answered most accurately by other members of the crowd. You could tell that they have spent the last couple of years pouring over facts, figures, and issues on websites like Redit and the liberal blogosphere to hone their political knowledge. The Internet has been an amazing political/educational tool of the 21st century, and a large chunk of the crowd was also similarly self educated.
The organizers broke the crowd into smaller groups to discuss key issues in the campaign like health care while surrounding large cardboard ‘science fair’ style trifolds that were pasted with snippets of text that further broke down their respective issues. Following the discussion there was a virtual appearance by the star of the show, Bernie Sanders via pre-recorded video. Bernie hit on most of his stump speech highlights discussing income inequality, free college tuition, and universal healthcare. Honestly, though I like Bernie, the highlight of the evening was the feeling of community in the room while discussing the issues of the day. This was not a top down organization by any stretch of the imagination. There was a healthy back and forth and a sharing of important information to keep everyone motivated and informed of what resources are available to help organize. People were encouraged to send a text message to the campaign to get future marching orders on how they could help. Being early in the campaign, the discussion was mainly on how to get Bernie’s name out to the vast majority of Americans that don’t yet know it. With a shoestring budget, the grassroots nature of this campaign are its only hope of overcoming the substantial financial odds it is up against, a fact that is well known by all in attendance. Despite that fact, there was no damper on enthusiasm as people clapped and cheered with every major theme discussed.
In conclusion, I for one don’t know if Sanders can pull off the upset of the century by winning the nomination and then the presidency, but I do know that groups like this will continue to grow in numbers and enthusiasm as Bernie becomes a household name. As long as young college students like Eric and Reid continue to step up, organize, and work the long hours it will take to push their candidate forward… he has a chance. This far out, a chance is motivation enough.