Mitch Perry
Bernie Sanders campaign events frequently take on the feel of giant pep rallies, with his audiences cheering enthusiastically throughout his stump speeches regarding economic inequality in America.
Friday morning’s hour-long address in Manchester, New Hampshire, was not one of those types of speeches.
Less than 12 hours after engaging in intense verbal combat with Hillary Clinton in their first one-to-one debate of the campaign, Sanders appeared at “Politics and Eggs,” a traditional Granite State breakfast generally considered a rite of passage for presidential candidates. All of them. Sanders is the 17th and final candidate this season to appear before the group leading into Tuesday’s primary election.
Judging by the number of men wearing suits at the Executive Court Banquet Facility, it was not exactly the crowd hoping for a political revolution. The crowd cheered Sanders about a half-dozen times during his address, a far cry from his events in front of young people that seem to have applause lines inserted in after every paragraph.
Sanders spoke for an hour, addressing all of the major themes that he’s become well known for the past year.
“What needs to happen is what I call a political revolution,” Sanders began. “Which means that millions of people who have given up on the political process, people who do not believe their vote matters. People who do pay attention to what goes on, or because they don’t get the information they need to even make decent judgments, because the media to a significant degree, sees politics as a football game or as a soap opera, rather than a discussion of the real issues facing our country.”
Sanders said he might be old fashioned, but he doesn’t see politics as being any different than going to the doctor’s office. “What are the problems? And how do we solve those problems? And that is something that we spend far, far too little time discussing.”
Part of the Vermont senator’s pitch to address income inequality is to more than double the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 to $15.00, an increase that goes beyond Clinton’s call for a bump up to $12.00 an hour (that line got the same soft applause treatment that one often hears on the PGA tour).
His applause line was when he said the country should be embarrassed that 47 million Americans live in poverty.
Sanders said one of the fun things about running for president is how the intense media spotlight can allow a candidate like himself to broaden the public discussion on the issues he’s raising. One of those issues is youth unemployment, particularly among black and Hispanics.
He moved off the economics talk for only a few moments. He ripped into Republicans for being the party of “family values,” yet said that they were guilty of hypocrisy when it comes to abortion rights, such as the recent votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
“When they talk about family values, they are saying to every woman in this room, every woman in New Hampshire, every woman in this country, that you do not have the right to control your own body.” He added that the GOP’s mantra is that government is the source of all evil, “Yet when it comes to a personal decision that a woman has to make, they love government. That is hypocrisy. That is wrong.”
The state of money in politics is a big part of Sanders’ message. He said he supports the public financing of elections.
He decried “dialing for dollars,” with members of Congress going across the street nearly every day when they’re in Washington to make fundraising calls.
“If you think you could simply divide your brain in half, and say, ‘OK, now I’m working on unemployment, or health care, oh, I gotta go out and raise money, it impacts your entirety. People are obsessed with raising money, it is getting worse, because of Citizens United.”
Sanders will join Hillary Clinton at an event for the New Hampshire Democratic Party Friday night in Manchester.
(Photo courtesy of Scott W. Nichol)
