Before the start of the rally thousands of people urgently wait for democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders to take the stage at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The crowd ranged from millennials wearing neon garb to families holding their crying children.
In the corner a group of bored children preformed an gymnastics routine, backflipping and cartwheeling on the hard concrete floor. Finally Mike Posner, a famous singer, took the stage and tried to no avail to rally the crowd.
A variety of other speakers and musicians follow Posner, but the crowd still appears muted. The last speaker Joseph Salazar ended his speech with a confident assertion about Sanders.
“He will be our president, he will be our president,” said Salazar.
As Sanders and his wife took the stage, the crowd demeanor greatly changed. The once placid crowd is screamed as if Sanders was the rock star of their dreams.
Sanders opened his speech with a declaration about his chances of winning the Colorado Democratic Primary vote.
“Don’t tell anybody but I think we’re going to win here in Colorado,” said Sanders.
After contending his beliefs about victory in Colorado, Sander went on to rally the crowd into a frenzy by bashing President Donald Trump. Sanders described Trump as a pathological liar, bully, vindictive, racist, sexist, homophobe, xenophobe and religious bigot. With each adjective he gives the crowd roars louder in agreement.
After finishing this stream of negative descriptions of Trump, Sanders remarked “and these are his best qualities.” This humorous jab further spurred the excitable crowd.
The crowd was made up of an equal mix of both women and men. The majority of the crowd is Caucasian, but there is a notable amount of people from the Latinx community. Many members of this community were wearing ‘Tío Bernie’ (uncle Bernie) pins.
According to the New York Times, many Latinx voters identify with Sanders, and he has raised more donations from Latinx supporters than any other democratic candidate.
“’Tío Bernie,’ they often call him, as if he were an affectionate uncle or a family friend,” wrote Jennifer Medina in an article for the New York Times.
After Sanders gave his opinions on our current president, he went on to explain why he believes that Trump is not a friend of working people.
“Something is wrong when the top one percent earns more wealth than the bottom ninety two percent,” said Sanders.
Sanders then continued to talk about the corruption of billionaires and the unequal distribution of wealth. Sanders specifically named Mike Bloomberg as an example of a political leader furthering these disparities. Sanders then explained that if he is elected, he will not let rich candidates abuse their wealth.
“We are going to end a corrupt political system in which billionaires buy elections,” said Sanders.
Sanders then went on to talk about his universal healthcare plan and stressed details like paid maternity leave and support of Planned Parenthood.
Meghan Munson, a sophomore student at the University of Denver, explains how the Bernie rally affected her.
“Bernie’s rally instilled hope in me because it showed other people care about human rights and the way Bernie implements them in his policies,” said Munson.
The MFJS Reporter -- Winter 2020 T-R 