The MFJS Reporter — Winter 2020 M-W

“This campaign is not about Bernie. It is about you and you and you and you — it is about us, not me,” said Sanders to an enthusiastic crowd full of families and young people alike. Sanders was just coming off of a victory in the New Hampshire presidential primary election. 

Sanders, who currently has the lead in national polls for the Democratic nomination, addressed a massive crowd on Sunday, urging Colorado voters that he was the candidate of the working class. 

“This is the campaign of the working class, of the working class, and for the working class,” said Sanders. 

This statement from Sanders was met with an abundance of cheers from the audience. In fact, in response to most of Sanders’s statements, the enthusiastic audience continuously chanted “Feel the Bern!” and “Bernie 2020!” 

The rally was previously moved from the Bellco Theatre, which seats 5,000, to accommodate a predicted larger number. Colorado voters delivered, and it was reported that over 11,000 people were filling the Colorado Convention Center on Sunday. According to the Sanders campaign, this is the largest rally that any presidential candidate has held in Colorado in 2020. 

While addressing his crowd, Sanders had two main focal points: critiquing billionaires and standing up for the working class, and critiquing President Trump. 

Sanders critiqued opponent Michael Bloomberg and his “friends on Wall Street” and told the audience that he would not allow Bloomberg to buy this election. He also brought the crowd together by taking aim at President Trump. 

“We may have disagreements,” said Sanders, “but we cannot have a president who is a pathological liar, running a corrupt administration, who has no clue what the Constitution of the United States is about, who is a bully, racist, vindictive, sexist, homophobe, xenophobe, and religious bigot. And those are some of his best qualities.”

Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, also emphasized things like universal healthcare and childcare, quality education, taking down the corporate elite, getting rid of the wage gap, and fighting for our planet. 

For Colorado, the numbers that this rally brought in are of importance. In the 2016 primary, Sanders won the Colorado Democratic Caucuses with 59 percent of the vote. However, the strategy of Sanders still is to appeal to young people of the working class. 

To accomplish their goals, Sanders and his wife Jane urged young people to get out and vote. 

“Young people, who are the future of this country, appear the most progressive, the least bigoted, the most concerned about issues such as climate change, the cost of health care and education,” she said.

Rally-goers also had the opportunity to listen to Sanders speak as well as sign up to volunteer on his campaign, buy merchandise, and speak with people on the campaign. 

“The only way that change can take place is from the bottom on up, not the top down. We are all family, as Americans, we are in this together,” Sanders stated.