On Memorial Day, Sanders led a procession of veterans during an unannounced stop at the former Presidio military base in San Francisco before crossing the Bay Bridge for a pair of scheduled events in neighboring Oakland. There, he first spoke at Allen Temple Baptist Church, focusing on economic, racial and educational inequality before heading to Frank Ogawa Plaza—known among local activists as Oscar Grant Plaza—to address a large and energized crowd gathered in front of City Hall. He even made a surprise halftime appearance at Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals as the Golden State Warriors advanced to the championship round for the second straight season.
At the City Hall rally, Sanders was introduced by University of California, Berkeley economist and former Clinton administration labor secretary Robert Reich, who lauded Bernie’s “courage to stand up to the establishment” and said he agreed with the candidate’s assessment that the current “concentration of income, wealth and political power is undermining our economy and eroding our democracy.”
Sanders said that concentration of power has led to a situation in which America “can invest trillions of dollars fighting a war in Iraq we should have never gotten into” while “we don’t have the funds to rebuild our crumbling cities.”
“No to more wars,” thundered Sanders to roaring applause. “No to more tax breaks for millionaires and corporations. Yes to investing in depressed inner cities and poverty-stricken rural communities!”
“I’ve been to Flint and talked to parents whose children’s water was poisoned by lead,” said Sanders. “I’ve been to Detroit, where the public school system is on the verge of collapse. I’ve been to Baltimore, where tens of thousands of people are addicted to heroin and can’t get treatment.”
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Around 20,000 people lined up for many blocks to hear the 74-year-old democratic socialist speak. This Digital Journalist was there and interviewed numerous Sanders supporters.
“I have an immune disorder and am willing to be ill in this sun and heat to see this wonderful man speak,” said 57-year-old artist Carey Caccavo Wheaton, who traveled 60 miles from Sebastopol to volunteer at the event. “I love Bernie because he truly cares about all of us; he’s a true FDR Democrat with the values this country needs to recover from its ills—vast income inequality, corruption in our elections, a lack of caring for ordinary citizens, worship of money and power and a corrupt media that won’t even fairly represent an election.” It was a refrain heard over and over again—that Bernie just cares more than any other candidate about ordinary people.
Both Democratic presidential hopefuls took to the streets on opposite coasts Monday to walk in Memorial Day parades: Frontrunner Hillary Clinton, joined by husband Bill, walked in the annual Newcastle Memorial Day parade in their hometown of Chappaqua, New York, while Bernie Sanders walked with a largely veteran crowd in a parade in San Francisco.
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On the other side of the country, Sanders marched in a San Francisco Memorial Day parade. He walked the short parade route with veterans and honored guests. Then, he later sat onstage joined by the mayor and police chief at the historic Presidio, overlooking the bay, next to the city's national cemetery.
Other than one female spectator who booed him, the crowd appeared excited by his surprise visit, shaking his hand and waving from the sidelines.
"As the former chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, the needs of veterans and the needs of those families who made the ultimate sacrifice is something that is very important," Sanders said.
Sanders also delivered a brief statement to reporters after the event, standing on the edge of the cemetery grass with military gravestones behind him. He did not take questions, saying he did not want to talk politics.
"Today is not just a day for picnics and for ball games," he said. "It is a day to remember. The cost of war is very very real. Not only in terms of death but in terms of the kind of pain that the veterans carry with them who have come back. So today is a day to remember the sacrifices of those who gave their lives and of their families."
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ visit to Oakland came with the joyous strains of gospel music, loud cheers in a variety of languages, and a sea of blue posters splashed with the presidential candidate’s name.
Oakland was the presidential hopeful’s latest stop in a grueling series of high-profile rallies across the state. From the pulpit and the podium, Sanders spoke about unemployment, the cost of living and the country’s dependence on jails.
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At the church, Sanders fielded questions about police shootings, an issue at the forefront in the Bay Area, especially since San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr was forced to resign in May after an officer shot an apparently unarmed black woman near the Bayview district. Police departments across the country need to provide more diversity and training in de-escalating tense confrontations, Sanders said.
“What kind of country are we when mothers are afraid to let their kids go out and play?” he said. “We do not have the culture which says that lethal force, shooting somebody, is the last response, not a first response. Too often the response is killing someone rather than coming up with other ways of dealing with the problem.”
Some residents were impressed that Sanders even came to their community, said Annette Haugabook, 56, of Oakland, who sat near a wall of stained glass windows waiting for the senator to arrive.
“I am in support of Sanders because he is going to bring change,” she said. “The fact that he would come to East Oakland means a lot to me because a lot of candidates won’t. You have to come to my community so I know you’re serious about change.”
With the bright California sun beating down on their faces, the 12,000 people gathered in a square in downtown Oakland heard Bernie Sanders make a bold prediction.
“I don’t want to add to secretary Clinton’s anxiety,” he shouted in a hoarse voice, “but if you promise not to tell her - we’re going to win here in California.”
The crowd, squinting in the sunshine, chanted “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!”
The Vermont senator, his face ruddy from long days of intensive campaigning in the state, continued: “The pundits, in their infinite wisdom, said this would be a fringe campaign ... a year later, we have won primaries in 20 states.”
Sanders has been on a punishing schedule of campaigning across California in the last week, speaking to large and ebullient crowds in packed rallies up and down the state. Hillary Clinton, because of the more than 500 superdelegates who have pledged to her campaign, is thought to have the nomination almost locked down - but a big win in California for Sanders would be a serious problem for the former secretary of state.
Sanders, in Oakland, radiated confidence. “We will go into the convention with a great deal of momentum,” he said, “and we will come out with the nomination.”
“The point I will be making to the Democratic National Convention is that in virtually every single poll, we do better against Donald Trump than secretary Clinton. So if we want a campaign that will make sure the disaster that is Donald Trump does not become president - we are that campaign.”
Seeking a great California comeback of his own, Sen. Bernie Sanders attended the dramatic finish of the NBA Western Conference Finals Monday night.
The Democratic presidential hopeful took in the game — which saw the Golden State Warriors complete a stunning turnaround to advance to the NBA Finals — with campaign supporter and actor Danny Glover.
A campaign spokesman playfully likened the Warriors improbable win against the Oklahoma City Thunder to Sanders' own uphill campaign battle against front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"You know the Golden State Warriors were down three games to one in what many experts said was a [longshot] for them to win. Now they're on the verge of a major comeback in California," the spokesman said.
Sanders has been campaigning hard across California ahead of the state's June 7 primary, in the hopes that a strong finish could upend the Democratic presidential race or give him leverage at the party's convention in Philadelphia this summer.
Five animal rights protesters jumped over barricades and rushed the podium at a Bernie Sanders rally in East Oakland, California, on Monday night, prompting the Vermont senator's Secret Service detail to intervene.
For his part, Sanders did not seem rattled.
"We don't get intimidated easily," he said, after the protesters had been removed.
Sanders’ campaign spokesperson, Michael Briggs, said he thought security handled the episode “professionally,” although a media spokesperson for the group organizing the protest said one of its members was “assaulted.”
Zach Groff of the grassroots group Direct Action Everywhere told ABC News that they have been targeting Sanders because of his message about caring for the most vulnerable.
“His campaign has promoted itself based on this idea of progressivism and rejecting discrimination and inequality," Groff said, "but when it comes to the animals in the United States and around the world, discrimination and violence is the name of the game every single day.”
The group is seeking an endorsement of full “personhood” for all animals and has previously disrupted Sanders' events.
Bernie Sanders reaffirmed Sunday that he is not planning to accept defeat in the primary race until the Democratic Party’s convention in July, regardless of the outcome of the June 7 primaries, which include delegate-rich California and New Jersey.
Talking to reporters before an event in East Oakland, California, Sanders preemptively rejected any declarations about Hillary Clinton as the presumptive nominee until superdelegates vote in Philadelphia at the party's convention later this summer, even if she passes the threshold for delegates needed, as she likely will, next week.
"I think you know there’s been some discussion that some of the media is going to say the campaign is over, she is the nominee on Tuesday night after the votes come in from New Jersey -- that’s not accurate,” said Sanders, who has been feverishly campaigning in California, where 475 pledged delegates are at stake
"She has received obviously a whole lot of superdelegate support, no question about that," Sanders said. "A lot more than I have. But superdelegates don’t vote until they’re on the floor of the Democratic convention. That’s when they vote. Sanders addded that "starting yesterday" his job was to convince superdelegates of his electability against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Peter Rosenstein has written a much-circulated Huffington Post article entitled “Sanders Candidacy Devolving into an Arrogant Insufferable Self-serving Disaster.” The article couldn’t be more wrong. This is a rebuttal.
Sanders’ candidacy has been an astounding success that will change America and the world for the better in ways we can only begin to imagine.
• Hillary will likely eke out a win in the battle for the Democratic nomination, but Bernie has won the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party and the wider progressive movement.
• Bernie (and fellow progressives like Elizabeth Warren) represent the future of the Democratic Party while Hillary and Clintonism represent the past. Bernie has won overwhelming majorities among people under 45-years old (as well as independents). These are the people who will dominate the Democratic Party and the progressive movement in years to come.
• Bernie’s campaign has become the largest progressive movement in recent history. As I’ve previously written, it will hopefully transform itself into a permanent mass progressive socialist/social democratic/progressive organization that will both run progressive candidates at every level of government from dog-catcher, to City-Councils, the State Legislatures to Congress, and organize popular campaigns, sometimes including large-scale demonstrations and even non-violent civil disobedience, for progressive change.
• Bernie has placed the issue of America’s corrupt campaign finance system front and center on the political agenda. And he’s done it not only with words but with deeds, raising over $200 million from over 8 million individual contributions averaging $27, while Hillary has relied on larger contributions and several Super PACs. Until millionaires, billionaires and corporations are no longer allowed to buy our elections, it’s unlikely that we will solve any of the nation’s serious problems. Bernie is leading the way.
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Bernie has had way more than “15 minutes of fame”. He has inspired millions to work to change the world for the better. He has fundamentally changed the political dialogue and set the future agenda for the Democratic Party, the progressive movement, and America as a whole.
Politics is always most successfully played as a game of addition, not subtraction. For some reason, however, the Democratic Party establishment thinks the rules have changed.
Borrowing a page from GOP front-runner Donald Trump, the Democratic leadership seems determined to belittle Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, which means belittling his large political following.
Instead of being gracious winners -- establishment favorite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the likely nominee, barring the unpredictable -- Democratic leaders are labeling Sanders a sore loser. They want him to suspend all campaigning or, at the very least, stop criticizing the former first lady. They insist his continuing the race only helps Trump.
When the 2016 presidential cycle started, the Democratic establishment viewed Sanders as a quixotic candidate. He had long been a thorn in its side -- a “democratic socialist” who accused elites in both major parties of rigging the economic and political systems against working-class families. Democratic leaders were certain the heavily favored Clinton would crush the 74-year-old Brooklyn native.
Instead, he gained traction.
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In politics, perception morphs into reality. Sanders and his backers rightly see themselves as winners. They may have lost the nomination because Clinton has won several million more votes. But Sanders supporters believe they hold the moral high ground. The establishment may disagree. But their dedication to a cause isn’t obstructionism: It is a powerful energy the Democratic Party need to harness, not harass.
The leadership apparently assumes it has the whip hand against Sanders -- largely because its advisers point to polls that indicate the Vermonter’s supporters will eventually fall in line behind Clinton to defeat Trump.
LBJ had a far bigger lead over Goldwater than any poll now gives Clinton over Trump. Yet, Johnson still reached out to find common ground with his critics. In 1964, the Democratic Party establishment would never have tried to humiliate Sanders, much less his supporters. It understood the politics of addition.
Liam Clive's voice rings with excitement as he races through the potential for Bernie Sanders's movement to "revolutionize" Congress after the presidential campaign.
"The first step is to really capitalize on the incredible and unexpected momentum and how much the Sanders message has resonated across the country to elect more progressive members to the United States Congress," he says.
Clive is a 16-year-old in Hawaii who says he finished high school last year and worked full-time on Sanders's campaign in the fall. He is also is now a spokesperson for the Brand New Congress, a political action committee founded by former Sanders aides to try fielding a slate of down-ballot candidates who fit the Bernie mold. (The work is unpaid.)
"We can get people who believe in revolutionary change elected to Congress," Clive says. "Bernie has shown the country that it's possible."
Clive's vision is certainly optimistic, but it's not based on nothing. Sanders ran up some massive margins over Hillary Clinton in congressional districts across the country — often in districts whose representatives endorsed Clinton. Given that Sanders won about 40 percent of Democratic primary voters, couldn't some substantial number of democratic socialists get elected to Congress on his basic platform?
Indeed, in this cycle alone, at least 30 congressional candidates are running under Bernie's banner. And the idea that Sanders could unleash a "Tea Party of the left" has generated a lot of media buzz, with his supporters thrilling to the possibility that he could lead a real faction within Congress.
It is a glorious day in Northern California, and Lewis Elbinger, a 68-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter, is feeling great — or, as he puts it, “high vibe.” In the five decades since he first painted a white peace sign on his forehead, protested the Vietnam War and hitchhiked to India to become a monk, in fact, he has never felt more optimistic about the country than at this very moment.
“A consciousness is rising,” he says.
A case could be made that this is not exactly so in the sense that Elbinger means it.
Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Hillary Clinton, according to everyone who is not a Sanders supporter, will be his Democratic opponent, meaning that Sanders is about to become the latest in a long line of progressive candidates to lose.
But that is not how things appear in Mount Shasta, where the light seems brighter, the air cleaner, the sky bluer, and where Elbinger is about to get into his car with two fellow Berners and drive 130 miles south. The destination is Chico, where he will try to become a Sanders delegate representing California at this summer’s Democratic National Convention. Put another way, he will be the older, white-haired Jewish guy with steadfast 1960s values trying to win an election against all odds.
He is certain that Sanders can not only win the nomination but also ride the wave of rising consciousness all the way to the White House, ushering in the era of peace, love and prosperity that his generation has long imagined.
“We’ve been waiting for this our entire lives,” says Elbinger, who retired after a 28-year State Department career that included a stint as a political adviser to Gen. David H. Petraeus at the U.S. Central Command in Florida. “I know this is going to catch fire.”
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“This is just the beginning,” says Elbinger, who cast his first presidential vote for the anti-Vietnam War Democrat Eugene McCarthy in 1968, the year that Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, cities were rioting, and Elbinger was sure that his country had “gone crazy.”