Bleary eyed and sleep deprived, I arrived on the first busload of Sanders volunteers a little after 6:30 am at the Verizon Wireless Arena in downtown Manchester NH, meeting place for the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention. As we filed off the bus, we were appalled to see that nearly every grassy area around the arena was covered with HRC yard signs. Meanwhile, a boisterous crowd of her supporters toting megaphones filled the sidewalk leading up to the venue’s entrance, despite the fact that the event wasn’t scheduled to begin until 9 am. As we removed our signs from the bus someone grumbled that the Hillary team must have been up all night setting up for the event. But as the Sanders busses continued to shuttle in supporters from the Manchester campaign headquarters, the equilibrium in signs and vocal enthusiasm was quickly established.
Chants of “Heh heh, ho ho, corporate greed has got to go” rivaled “HRC for 603”, a reference to New Hampshire’s sole telephone area code, as both groups vied for the attention of arriving convention goers. The O’Malley supporters though small in numbers, were vocally drawing the attention to “more debates”, while across the street groups of demonstrators protested things like the Keystone Pipeline and the Northern Pass electrical transmission lines project in NH. The American Friends were present along side the perennial Lyndon LaRouche supporters. All of this activity took place amidst a carnival like atmosphere, and the police for once were undoubtedly given orders to go easy on the participants, even when they were blocking the access to the event.
The presence of the world press and the State power brokers guaranteed an amazing instance of the exercise of free speech and peaceful and lawful assembly. If only this were the case in other parts of the country and at other protest venues. But for more on the goings on inside the convention please follow me below the fold.
As we entered through airport like security and filed into the arena, it became obvious who the convention was meant to promote. The backs of hundreds of empty seats were covered by dark blue HRC tee shirts, waiting for supporters to slip them on. Meanwhile Hillary supporters circulated with plastic noise makers more often seen at football games to produce a home team advantage by increasing the decibel levels for the “home” team. These efforts however were destined to fall short, as reported by the seattletimes.com.
It was Sanders, speaking after Clinton at the state party’s annual convention in Manchester, who received more ecstatic cheers from the crowd, as he denounced big banks, trade deals, tax breaks for the wealthy and super PACs like the one supporting Clinton’s candidacy…/…While Clinton received an enthusiastic reception, with people beating inflatable noisemaker sticks that her well-financed campaign passed out, the ovation for Sanders was striking because he is not a party member
The litany of endorsements from the lopsided parade of party dignitaries confirmed that this event was meant to be a coronation for Hillary. Beginning with State Party Chair Ray Buckley and followed by Governor Maggie Hassan, Senator Jean Shaheen and Congresswoman Annie Kuster, all spoke in favor of HRC. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was also present to add her voice to the choir, but this speech has already been covered by several excellent diaries. So I won’t comment except to say that the cries for “more debates” and “we want debates” were sustained and came from Sanders and O’Malley supporters in every part of the arena, though not from any HRC people as far as I could see.
However, the starkest contrasts in the event came from the tone and content of the speakers themselves. Hillary and her surrogates spoke in soft terms like “I listened to…middle class families” and “I have a program to…” or “I support equal pay and family leave…”, with no particulars attached to these statements. Sanders on the other hand spoke in specific terms of “Free tuition to state colleges and universities so every child has access the middle class” or “I will guarantee 12 weeks paid medical and family leave” and “We will break up the banks that are too big to fail”.
O’Malley too had more specifics in his address, such as a $15/hour minimum wage, expanding social security, and reinstatement of Glass Steagel. He also had the single best line of the convention referring to Donald Trump as a “racist, immigrant hating, carnival barker.” The differences between the party machine and the insurgent candidates could not have seemed more severe if they had tried to put them on display.
But the highlight of the day for me was to be chosen along with a group of Sanders volunteers to meet the candidate personally at the Manchester Campaign Headquarters opening, which followed the party convention. Although Bernie was hurried by the staff due to the convention running late and the need to get to another scheduled event in Goffstown, he was gracious with the volunteers and a delegation of NH Postal Workers who had just endorsed him. He took time to sign some autographs and I was personally thrilled to be able to shake the hand of the next President of the United States.