The Emotional Conclusion To Bernie Sander’s Presidential Campaign At Democratic Convention
Emotions were high on Monday throughout the Democratic Convention, and when Bernie Sanders appeared on stage as the last speaker of the night, he had to delay his speech by several minutes due to his supporters’ cheers. His was the only one throughout the entire day that contained any substantial policy issues.
Before he walked on stage, speaker after speaker hammered away at Republican nominee Donald Trump. It was a veritable fear fest, with horror stories of how Trump will trample the rights of Americans of all creeds and colors. The Chicagoist reports that nearly every speaker referred to Trump by name and how disastrous his presidency would be if elected.
Every speaker, from Elizabeth Warren to Cory Booker, thanked Bernie Sanders for giving people the courage to stand up and be heard.They were patting Bernie on the back, except they were all holding knives and twisting them for good measure.
The people’s voices were heard. On the contrary. Millions were denied the right to vote during the Democratic primary. In New York, 27 percent of registered voters were denied a voice due to the state’s draconian voter registration laws, according to The Nation. Voters from California to New York reported switched party registrations, missing registrations, or that they had someone been de-registered after having been registered for years. In New York alone, more than three million independent voters were denied the right to cast a ballot due to the state’s draconian voter registration laws. In Arizona, two-thirds of polling stations were eliminated, and wait times in some locations were five hours long.
When Bernie Sanders walked on stage, he had to wait several minutes to start his speech due to the incessant chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” drowning out everything else. He stood there, a shadow of his old self, reiterating his stump speech and railing against a rigged economy.
And as he capitulated to the fear-inducing, corrupt war monger, his delegates wept openly in the pit.
“I want to read before this convention the names of our parents: Eli Sanders and Dorothy Glassberg Sanders. They did not have easy lives and they died young. They would be immensely proud of their son and his accomplishments. They loved him. They loved the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt and would be especially proud that Bernard has rewound that vision. It is with enormous pride that I cast my vote for Bernie Sanders.”
DNC roll call underway; @BernieSanders tears up as his brother says his parents would be proud of his campaign pic.twitter.com/LRU6YADMGC
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) July 26, 2016
Bernie and his wife, Jane, were visibly touched by his older brother’s remarks, and the former presidential candidate struggled to hold back tears.
Bernie then joined the Vermont convention delegation and personally moved to nominate Clinton by acclamation. As he did so, hundreds of his own delegates staged a quickly-planned walkout in protest. The walkout left hundreds of seats empty, making the convention floor half-empty. Bernie’s call to nominate his former rival was meant to bring unity to the party, but after more than a year of divisive politics by the Clinton campaign in direct coordination with the DNC, many delegates saw any efforts to unify as just another method to force an appearance of political harmony that simply is not there.
NBC News reports that the walkout was staged covertly by delegates who fiercely guarded their plans to protest Clinton’s nomination. Alex Seitz-Wald reports that the participants of the convention walkout were “paranoid” about being discovered, organizing the protest in secret.
“Eventually, they organized themselves in several secret Slack channels and Facebook groups, the largest of which had over 1,250 delegates.”
Wald proposed that the convention delegates “likely over-represent the most die-hard activists” but he could be wrong. In just about any pro-Bernie Sanders group on Facebook, one can see the sheer numbers of people who have vowed to never vote for Hillary. Some Bernie supporters even believe Donald Trump would be preferable to Clinton. After all, as Jill Stein has said before, Clinton has done all the horrible, war-mongering, racially offensive, xenophobic, and socially repugnant things the Democratic Party is criticizing Trump for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGRo1mH2_8w&feature=share
Not to mention the DNC email leaks that were released the day before the Democratic Convention began. These bore fruit to the allegations by Bernie and his supporters that the DNC favored Clinton over Bernie from the start. After a year of being called paranoid conspiracy theorists, we were proven right, and the DNC merely shrugged and plowed on in its single-minded determination select the first woman as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
The Democratic Party has vowed to tear down walls, while an eight-foot wall stands between the convention and protestors outside. Instead of embracing Bernie and his supporters, the party mocked, ridiculed, and intimidated them for refusing to fall in line behind their pre-ordained candidate. The Democratic Convention may not be violent, but there certainly is no unity here, unless it is completely manufactured.
[Photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP Images]
