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Bernie Returns To His Alma Mater:
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday returned to his alma mater, the University of Chicago, a day after a poll put him closer to Hillary Clinton than ever.
The independent from Vermont is running for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president and spoke at Rockefeller Chapel as part of the Institute of Politics Road to 2016 series.
In front of a packed crowd of about 1,400, Sanders struck a note of an personal battle for social justice that started at the university where he studied English and then political philosophy while earning as much of an education in the neighborhood's tumultuous political climate of the 1960s.
"I will not go down in history as one of the great students in the history of the University of Chicago," Sanders said. "I spent many days in the basement of Harper Library reading everything except the books I was supposed to be reading for class the next day — don’t take that as advice. Do better than I did."
He said Hyde Park was the first place where he met people who had devoted their lives to social justice and civil rights issues.
Big Man On Campus:
For Bernie Sanders fans—and they are as much fans as they are supporters—the Vermont senator and rising presidential candidate’s appeal is his authenticity.
Nowhere is that more on display than at his alma mater, the University of Chicago, where Sanders delivered his usual bombastic progressive stump speech to the delight of the mostly youthful crowd. A diverse group of college kids from mostly affluent, liberal backgrounds snaked around the block outside Rockefeller Chapel, which is less humble prayer space and more Notre Dame de Paris.
To look at him, Sanders is an unlikely candidate for the hip crowd, but, for right now he’s their preference over Hillary Clinton who is trying so hard, too hard maybe, to capture Bernie’s intangible cool.
“I used to be very pro-Hillary and then switched over, and I think that what changed things for me was hearing Bernie’s message on the environment and on inequality,” said Nadia Perl, a University of Chicago student who watched Sanders speak there Monday morning. “And what he’s saying is very genuine, based on his personal experiences, and he’s had these views his whole life.”
Berning Man:
A group of musicians will rock out to raise cash for Brooklyn-born presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Oct. 8. The fund-raiser at the Paper Box in Bushwick will feature a bevy of Brooklyn musicians and DJs, playing a politically-charged set that the show’s founder says will get Brooklynites berning hot for the Democratic candidate.
“These are all very political, strong, passionate songs,” said Armand Aviram, who also curated the set list. “We’ll be playing John Lennon, Bob Marley, ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ which is actually Bernie’s campaign theme song.”
Aviram says his affection for Sanders started in 2010, when the Vermont senator spent almost nine hours filibustering an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. Once Sanders announced that he was running for president, Aviram realized he could use his experience as a musician to support the socialist candidate from Flatbush, and he put together “Berning Up Brooklyn.”
A Very Punk Weekend At Bernies:
Last night at Bushwick’s Shea Stadium, sweat-drenched Brooklynites showed up for more than the opportunity to mosh. The “Weekend at Bernies” event, hosted by Bushwick Berners, doubled as a rock show—with sets by Guerilla Toss, Mannequin Pussy, Nine of Swords, and Nonsense—and fundraiser for Vermont Senator and Democratic candidate for President Bernie Sanders. Stumble a few feet out of the pit, and you’d land yourself at a table with voter registration cards and a sign-up sheet to volunteer with the campaign, plus lots of “Bernie swag,” including a home-printed “Bernie is Bae” t-shirt.
The mash-up might seem strange, but Sanders is about as punk rock as a seventy-four-year-old senator can be. He’s an anti-war socialist known for standing up to corporate greed, and even has a bit of his own DIY cred. Back in the ‘80s when Sanders was mayor of Burlington, VT, he and his wife opened an all-ages venue that’s still operating to this day. The spot, called 242 Maine, got an on-stage shout-out from Nine of Swords, and has hosted performances by Fugazi and Operation Ivy.
“When he was our age, he was kind of involved in a very similar setting where music and art were the main focus of a lot of people's lives,” Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa Dabice told us. She, like others, also referenced his no-bullshit (punk rock, if you will) authenticity.
“He’s the only candidate that when he opens his mouth to say something, my first thought isn’t immediately bullshit or that he’s reading a script that’s been written for him by lobbyists and corporations.”
More On Bernie In Chicago:
Bernie Sanders called on thousands of college students to join him in fighting for a $15 minimum wage, women's rights and slowing climate change during a stop at his alma mater Monday that had echoes of Barack Obama's successful White House bids.
The Democratic presidential candidate and independent senator from Vermont urged about 2,000 cheering students at the University of Chicago to register to vote and stand up to the "millionaires" he says are trying to control U.S. politics. Sanders graduated in 1964 from the university, where as a self-described mediocre student he led protests against racially segregated housing and said he got his first taste of "democratic socialism."
"We need the idealism and the energy and the intelligence of millions of young people to join us in the fight to make America the kind of country we know it must become," Sanders said. "There is nothing that I am telling you today that is pie-in-the-sky, that is utopian. Nothing."
Sanders The Feminist:
Hillary Clinton isn't the only presidential candidate to proudly identify as a feminist. In an interview with a Washington Post reporter published on Thursday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders discussed feminism and simply and straightforwardly identified as one. To Sanders, feminism means "a commitment to fighting for women’s rights," which he claims he's maintained throughout his political career.
But discussing feminism as the leading challenger against a female candidate for the presidency begs the natural question of Sanders' thoughts on the need for a female POTUS. It's certainly a question that the predominantly male GOP field hasn't addressed when discussing either Clinton or Carly Fiorina, the GOP's only female candidate. And while it's important that gender not sway how contenders for the presidency treat each other, or how voters make their choices, it's an important concept to discuss.
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Essentially, Sanders' take on feminism and the 2016 election is that we should support a presidential candidate based on their track record and platform first and foremost. And he has a point — gender equality is achieved through not allowing an individual's gender to affect how we treat them. There's plenty to appreciate about Sanders' words on feminism and the appeal of a female POTUS, although both he and Clinton identifying as feminists certainly doesn't make it easier to choose between the two.
However, arguably the best part of his brief interview with The Washington Post was the simplicity and ease of his response. Sanders' stances on women's rights, LGBT rights, and racial equality have obviously aligned with the feminist movement from the start, but one's ability to proudly identify as a feminist will always be the icing on the cake of equality.
Why Bernie Talks About The Pope So Much:
When Bernie Sanders stepped onto a makeshift soapbox at the Latino Heritage Festival here Saturday, he immediately compared himself to Pope Francis.
"What he is saying in so many words is there is something very wrong in this world, and I am saying in this country, when so few have so much and so many have so little," Sanders said.
It would be easy to interpret Sanders's emphasis on Francis, who just wrapped up a US tour, as the fleeting fascination of a politician trying to capitalize on a zeitgeist. It would also miss the point.
What Sanders is really doing is defter and more interesting — he's using the pope to put his unusual-for-America politics into a global context that makes them seem more mainstream to voters. Francis, who recently admonished world leaders to "seek a new economic model to help the poor and to shun policies that sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit," helps him do that.
Surely it isn't hurting.
The Power Of Grassroots Fundraising:
The Washington Post on Saturday reported that Hillary Clinton has launched “an intense press to stockpile campaign dollars in the final days of the quarter, aiming to build a war chest big enough to eclipse what is expected to be a healthy fundraising haul by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.”
Say what? The Clinton campaign is pressing to match Bernie’s grassroots fund-raising totals? Sanders has surged to a stunning lead in the early polls in New Hampshire and is continuing to gain in Iowa. Clinton has suffered a terrible summer, with polls registering growing disapproval.
Now Sanders may demonstrate that, in the new age of social media, it is possible to raise enough money from small donations largely over the Web to be competitive in a presidential race. Hillary raised a record $46 million in the last quarter (the first reporting period since her announcement), with 16.8 percent coming from donations of $200 or less. Bernie raised $15.2 million, more than any Republican contender, with 68 percent from donations of $200 or less. Now his totals are forcing the Clinton campaign to react.
Tax The Billionaires:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation to increase estate tax rates on the top three-tenths of one percent of Americans who inherit more than $3.5 million, while eliminating loopholes that have allowed the wealthiest Americans to avoid billions in taxes.
Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said the legislation was needed to reduce the massive gap between the very rich and working class Americans.
Sanders has made the issue of reducing skyrocketing income and wealth inequality one of his central goals since becoming ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.
“Our nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little. We need a tax system which asks the billionaire class to pay its fair share of taxes and which reduces the obscene degree of wealth inequality in America,” Sanders said.
Since its introduction in June, Sanders’ plan has won praise from tax advocates and some of the leading progressive voices in the country and around the world, including Robert Reich who was labor secretary for President Clinton, and Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
7:07 AM PT: Speaking of grassroots fundraising lets set a new goal of $10,000 for Bernie via the BNR's ActBlue tool: