Bernie Sanders Arizona Rally Recap

By: Joseph Guzman

Cronkite Special to AZLatinos.com

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke to more than 7,000 people at the Phoenix Convention Center Tuesday, while the results of critical primaries for his campaign slowly came in.

“Are you tired of a hand full of billionaires running our economy? Well if you are you have come to the right place,” Sanders said.

Sanders opened up his rally with two major points his campaign has focused on throughout the election: a corrupt campaign finance system, and a corrupt economy he said is unsustainable and un-American. “The Koch brothers and other billionaires are spending hundreds of millions on campaigns, that is oligarchy not democracy,” Sanders said.

The presidential candidate said when billionaires spend unlimited amounts of money for campaigns it in turn undermines American democracy. He then told the crowd he wants to overturn the Citizens United ruling (which allows corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money to candidates), as well as move the country toward publicly funded elections.

Sanders talked about a rigged economy, one that he says has a “grotesque” amount of wealth and income inequality, where the top 1/10 of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. “The media does not talk about it, but it is unacceptable to me that the wealthiest 20 people own more wealth than the bottom half of America,” Sanders said.

The Vermont senator made an example out of the Walton family, the owners of Wal-Mart, saying the rate they pay their workers is so low that many have to go on Medicaid or food stamps, while the middle class tax payer pays more to subsidize the employees of the wealthiest family in America. “I say to the Walton family, get off welfare and pay your workers adequate wages,” Sanders said.

Sanders talked about his solutions for a better economy including a $15.00 minimum wage, putting a trillion dollars into infrastructure (which he says would create 13 million paying jobs) and ending what he says are disastrous trade deals and policies that are destroying the country.

The candidate talked about comprehensive immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants, saying if congress fails to act he would use the executive power.

Sanders mentioned Trumps insults toward minorities and immigrants, telling voters that they should not settle. “In our country, not everybody agrees… what is not acceptable… is to throw racist attacks against Mexicans,” Sanders said. “The reason that Donald Trump will never be elected president is the American people will not accept insults to Mexicans and women. The American people will not accept a president who insults our veterans.”

19-year-old student Lindsey Floyd said that Sanders economic message is what really resonated with her and inspired her to be a supporter.  “His economic reform, the whole $15 minimum wage, campaign spending, I think that’s what really separates our quality of life versus the one percent’s quality of life. I think with that comes issues involving race and people not having the same opportunities. We need economic freedom as much as our other liberties.”

The crowd was filled with Millennials, and for many this will be the first election they are able to vote in; yet not all in attendance had decided on whom to vote for.

Manuel Galindo, 18-year-old high school senior, said he was not entirely sure if Sanders was his candidate. “I wanted to get a feel to see what he was about. I’m a young adult now so I want to be sure I’m making an educated vote. Bernie seems like he is more for the people, but I’m unsure,” Galindo said.

Mike Cook, 62-year-old retiree, said he has been following Bernie Sanders for years and was happy to see such a large crowd attend the rally. “We’ve had 30 years of the system being rigged. Bernie is like the canary in the coal mine, he was yelling about it a long time ago. A few of us have sort of picked up on it a while back; I think there is a big untapped left leaning community in Arizona,” Cook said.

Sanders told the audience the upcoming election in Arizona was important and encouraged them to show up to vote to make the turnout high.

Sanders did end up suffering a big loss to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in key state primaries however, losing in Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, and Florida.