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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MARCH 10, 2019
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“ Exhilarating!“– The Everyman, Cheltenham
“Astonishing!” – L.A. Weekly
BY COLIN MIXSON
Brooklyn’s feeling the Bern
— again!
Thousands of left-leaning
locals packed Brooklyn
College’s East Quad on
March 2 to watch borough
son, Independent Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders, deliver
the fi rst rally of his
recently announced 2020
presidential campaign,
where the pol credited his
self-described democraticsocialist
values to his humble
Kings County roots.
“I was born a few miles
away from here on E. 26th
Street and Kings Highway,
and my family and I lived
in a three-and-a-half-room,
rent-controlled apartment,”
Sanders told the
crowd. “My experience as a
child, living in a family that
struggled economically,
powerfully infl uenced my
life and my values.”
The pol, who attended
Brooklyn College for a year
in 1959 after graduating
from James Madison High
School, made a laundry list
of progressive promises —
including Medicare for all,
a national $15 minimum
wage, free enrollment at
public colleges, outlawing
for-profi t prisons, and ending
the so-called War on
Drugs — to his adoring supporters,
occasionally pausing
as chants of “Bernie,
Bernie, Bernie” erupted
from the audience.
And throughout his
speech, Sanders took every
opportunity to distinguish
his and his campaign’s values
from those of the country’s
sitting commander-inchief,
whom he derided as a
racist, sexist, homophobe,
and called “the most dangerous
president in modern
American history.”
“I want to welcome you
to a campaign which says
loudly and clearly that the
underlying principals of
our government will not
be greed, hatred, and lies;
it will not be racism, sexism,
xenophobia, homophobia,
and religious bigotry;
it will not be tax breaks for
billionaires, and efforts to
throw millions off of the
healthcare that they currently
have,” Sanders said.
Campaign staffers estimated
the rally drew some
13,000 Berners, and attendees
waited for hours in lines
that stretched down Bedford
Avenue for a chance to
hear the two-time presidential
hopeful speak , according
to one Brooklyn College
student.
“The turnout was
crazy,” said Daniela Umana.
“I was in shock.”
But the wait was well
worth it, according to another
Sanders supporter
from Prospect Heights,
who praised the Independent
politician for largely
sticking to his long-time
agenda of radical social
and economic reform, even
as many argue he must cater
to more moderate voters
to claim the Democratic
Party’s nomination after
failing to do so in 2016.
“I was very glad that we
did not see some new message
coming through,” said
Robert Segal. “He was spot
on in 2016, and he’s been
saying the same thing for
37 years. If he suddenly
changed his tack in an attempt
to better navigate the
electoral systems, I would
be really disappointed. But
he didn’t.”
Sanders, who opened
offi ces in Gowanus and
Flatbush during his unsuccessful
campaign for
the Democratic Party line
ahead of the last election,
returned to Brooklyn College
almost two years after
delivering the school’s
2017 commencement address
, when he again criticized
the 45th president,
and received an honorary
degree from the university
— roughly 58 years after he
transferred from it to the
University of Chicago.
Reps for his campaign
could not be immediately
reached about whether or
not the pol again plans to
open offi ces in Brooklyn.
Weekend with Bernie
BERN NOTICE: Daniela Umana
came out to support Bernie
Sanders. Photo by Caroline Ourso
BACK TO COLLEGE: Bernie Sanders hosted the fi rst rally of his
2020 presidential campaign at Brooklyn College on March 2.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Sanders returns to Bklyn for the fi rst rally of his 2020 campaign
2019
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