I attended this with my sister and a coworker who is passionate about Bernie.
I was amazed at the level of — not even enthusiasm — passion — of course almost everybody there except for us was like, 2 years old haha. Although one older guy (older guy, haha my age) was there saying “hey feel sorry for me, I’m from Wisconsin, my governor is Scott Walker”. We had a nice conversation with him, me and coworker and my sister. You got an opportunity to have a lot of nice conversations in that very long line to get into to River Center, St Paul.
It was like attending a football game, or a rock concert. LOTS of passion — and chanting — “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie”. Like a rock star.
And he delivered. I have been listening to Bernie on the Thom Hartmann show for a long time, but this is a new Bernie, really fired up. And Keith Ellison, who I adore, was there.
So they herded us into the basement in the River Center, and I spent a couple of hours standing on my very tired old feet — but it was worth it.
I was momentarily a little put off by what he is promising — free college tuition for all, free healthcare for all, hey Bernie you and what army (and what Congress) is going to let you do this? And you could have kind of made a little more gesture at us old people, (granted, not many there — the crowd was overwhelmingly very young) and told us you are dedicated to seeing our Social Security and veteran’s benefits are not in danger.
But overall, I love Bernie. And of course he is right that we have to get a Congress that will let him do these things.
I sometimes wonder — since it seems to me that EVERY President in my lifetime has been accused of not living up to their promises — well, maybe that’s because Presidents just don’t have that much power without Congress, and we should sort of focus on getting good Congresscritters elected.
I attended an Al Franken rally back in the day — the crowd was older — much more sedate — but when Al talked about his friend Paul Wellstone, people cheered and clapped and wept — including me — but sorta quietly.
This was nothing like that. This was raucous. They expected 10000 at the Bernie rally and about 15000 showed up. And it was noisy. And loud. And rude.
Love those youngsters for having so much enthusiasm.
It was great.
Myself, my sister, and Marvelous Marvin wish you a great day.
Love, Rose