On President’s Day February 17 I ventured down to Tacoma, WA with two others to see and hear Senator Bernie Sanders speak.
As I approached the Dome, I saw long lines snake around the structure approximately a mile long and often as many as three people deep.
The event began with some entertainment, a couple bands and then some tribal groups who expressed their support for Sanders because of his strong environmental policies. Global warming is depleting the fish supply, which many Native tribes depend on for their livelihood.
The Tacoma Dome continued to fill until the floor and every seat appeared to be full of Bernie supporters. It was announced that 17000 had filled the stadium.
Several speakers warmed up the crowd prior to Sanders taking the podium. This included two Seattle City Council members and actor Tim Robbins who was in town doing a play about immigration. I was curious to know why no Tacoma City council members were speakers as the event occurred in Tacoma.
Kshama Sawant, Seattle’s only council member who is a self-proclaimed socialist, was instrumental in getting a $15 an hour minimum wage passed in Seattle. She’s currently pushing a law to tax big companies like Amazon to help combat the high homeless level in Seattle. When she mentioned the name of NYC congressional rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the entire stadium erupted in cheers. She brought up AOC’s proclamation that in any other country she and Joe Biden would be in different parties. She stressed that we need a party that serves people and not corporations and the interests of the one-percent.
Washington State congressional rep Pramila Jayapal was another speaker. She is a primary sponsor of Sanders’ Medicare for All and Education for All policies. She claimed that the US doesn’t suffer from scarcity but rather suffers from greed. That our politicians don’t have the courage to stand up to the big corporations and that we ned someone who can defeat the most racist, misogynistic, egotistical president we’ve ever had.
After Jayapal, Bernie himself took the podium. With his wife Jane by his side, he began his speech by stressing that we had to defeat the most dangerous president who is a pathological liar, a racist, a xenophobe, a homophobe, a misogynist and a bigot. He is also a sell-out to the working families he promised to serve. He promised to help the working class, yet gave all the tax breaks to the wealthiest. He promised he would never touch Social Security, yet his latest budget proposal calls for drastic cuts to Social Security. He hates immigrants, yet hired them to work at his resorts for starvation wages.
Sanders continued that we will not accept the vast wealth disparity where one-percent of the population owns more wealth than the remaining ninety-nine percent.
He then touched on student debt and our broken health care system. Forty-five million people struggle with student debt, millions can’t afford health care and are being ripped off by the pharmaceutical companies. Congress gives help to the billionaires while people sleep in the streets. We have a crooked political system where the wealthy buy our politicians.
Sanders also mentioned Mayor Bloomberg, which brought forth loud boos. Bloomberg continued the stop and frisk, targeting blacks and Hispanics. Those people lived in fear because of his actions. Bloomberg is also against raising the minimum wage and added how shameful it is for a man of his wealth to deny others the ability to earn even a living wage.
He continued with claiming he would rebuild our crumbling infrastructure with good paying union jobs, give immigrants a path to citizenship, ensure women earn the same as men and all public school teachers are paid a minimum of $60,000 a year. He promised to take on the fossil fuel companies and make all colleges and trade schools tuition free, adding that if congress can bail out the banks and other Wall Street crooks they can pay off student debt. Sanders also wants to expunge all marijuana convictions and make marijuana legal nation wide. He will increase funding for Planned Parenthood and fix our broken criminal justice system and make universal background checks for firearm purchases mandatory.
The Sanders campaign has taken no corporate donations, yet has raised more money than any other democratic candidate with citizen donations averaging $18.50 each.
This is people power, not corporate power and that is making the corporations nervous, it is making republicans nervous. It is making the establishment nervous. He finished with saying, “Let’s win the democratic nomination and create a government that works for all, not a few.”
– Holly Homan
