Bernie Sanders Fired the Opening Shot of his Political Revolution in Vermont
Bernie Sanders Just Fired the Opening Shots of His "Political Revolution" in Vermont"Today, we stand here and say loudly and clearly: Enough is enough," Sanders said, his voice booming up and down the eastern shoreline of Lake Champlain. "This great nation and its government belong to all of the people and not to a handful of billionaires."
"We are going to take this campaign directly to the people," Sanders said toward the end of his speech. "In town meetings, on street corners, my campaign will not be led by gossip or reckless personal attacks. These are serious times and we need serious debates."
And he's off to a GREAT start:
"to ceremonially kick off a campaign that has been gaining speed and support faster than even the truest believers could have imagined".
I said that AGAIN, because it is true. I knew once people got to know him they would be impressed, but to be honest, I thought it would take a lot longer to see his poll numbers go from 3% in Jan to where they are already. Some even as high as 24%, in NH UP to 18%!!
And he has only just begun!
Editing to add this CSpan Video of Bernie's Campaign Opening Speech for anyone who missed it:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?326214-1/senator-bernie-sanders-ivt-presidential-campaign-announcement
= new reply since forum marked as read
I cannot believe the accusations that I'm hearing about this man.
Bernie Sanders, member of the steering committee, stands next to George Beadle, University of Chicago president, who is speaking at a Committee On Racial Equality meeting on housing sit-ins. 1962.
Bernie Sanders was a prominent local activist in college, and not much has changed. Bernie Sanders won the first election he ever lost.
It was the late 1950s, and Sanders was still a teenager, running to be class president at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York. His platform promised to raise scholarship money for kids in Korea orphaned during the recent war. “It was an unusual thing for a person so young to be involved in,” remembers Larry Sanders, Bernie’s older brother. When the votes were tallied, the future Senator from Vermont fell short, coming in third, but the outcome set a precedent he would love to repeat on the national stage. The winner adopted the Korean scholarship idea and made it happen.
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In Chicago, Sanders threw himself into activism—civil rights, economic justice, volunteering, organizing. “I received more of an education off campus than I did in the classroom,” Sanders says. By his 23rd birthday, Sanders had worked for a meatpackers union, marched for civil rights in Washington D.C., joined the university socialists and been arrested at a civil rights demonstration. He delivered jeremiads to young crowds. The police called him an outside agitator, Sanders said. He was a sloppy student, and the dean asked him to take a year off. He inspired his classmates. “He knows how to talk to people now,” said Robin Kaufman, a student who knew Sanders in 1960s Chicago, “and he knew how to do it then.” He was a radical before it was cool.
