“To be clear: I’m back!” That is the message that Bernie Sanders wants to convey this Saturday in the New York borough of Queens. Anyone who doubted that the 78-year-old non-party Senator from Vermont is fit for the fight against Donald Trump after his heart attack, his campaign on Saturday wants to teach him better. Measured against the mobilization, this has been successful: no candidate for the presidential candidacy of the Democrats has so far gathered so many supporters.
Over 25,000 people have come to Queensbridge Park on this cloudless autumn day. They first cheer the documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and some activists and politicians before Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez comes on stage. With sustained applause, she thanked everyone who tirelessly campaigned. Then the former waitress said that it was only through Sanders that she had the courage to go into politics. The Vermont senator fought for universal health coverage and debt relief for college graduates when she thought all of this was out of reach. No one wanted to question the system, but Sanders has been doing this for a long time and has changed the country’s political landscape sustainably since 2016, says the MP. When she finally announces again that she supports Sanders’ campaign for president, Ocasio-Cortez can hardly be heard for the sheer cheering.
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Also creates enthusiasm: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Bild: AP
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Sanders then delivers his usual passionate speech – nobody should doubt that he is completely fit again. He is ready to become president of all Americans – in fact, he has never felt as ready for it as he does now. “This is the fight for an America where working people have power,” shouts Sanders, outlining his plans for the “political revolution” in the country that has mobilized so many Americans young and old since 2016: college debt relief Graduates, health insurance for everyone, millions of new jobs under the “Green New Deal” and the fight against racism and misogyny.
From an idea on the left to the most important topic
More specifically than competitor Elizabeth Warren, Sanders, as in the television debates, addresses the question of the skeptics as to how all of this is to be financed. Higher taxes for the richest in the country and a tax on speculative profits are intended to fund many of the projects. There is also a little swipe at the internal party competition – unlike some colleagues, he believes that these things can be achieved in America, says Sanders. Yes, he has fought himself in the past few weeks, he briefly comments on his health situation. But here, in the huge social housing buildings right next door, people fought every day who didn’t even have decent health insurance.
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