This is not a good copy and paste. Sorry about that. The article
appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. To me a goodly portion of the
people in attendance were under about 25 years of age.
Richard
New Mexicans ‘feel the Bern’
By Maggie Shepard and T.S. Last/Journal Staff Writers
<http://www.abqjournal.com/author/tlast>
Saturday, May 21st, 2016 at 12:05am
New Mexicans 'feel the Bern'
<http://www.abqjournal.com/?attachment_id=778306>
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to a crowd of
more than 7,000 at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Friday. (Roberto
E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders worked up a crowd of more
than 7,000 people who came to see him Friday, sending them into a
chanting frenzy over some of the sensitive cultural issues he talked
about at the rally – racial and economic inequality, environmental
regulation and the history of Native Americans.
Hundreds more Sanders supporters were closed out of the Albuquerque
Convention Center on Friday night for Sanders’ speech, his second event
of the day in New Mexico.
Lukman Seyal, 7, of Rio Rancho, wears his Bernie Sanders school project
around his neck as he enters the Albuquerque Convention Center with his
family to attend a rally for the Democratic Party presidential candidate
on Friday
<http://www.abqjournal.com/778295/new-mexicans-feel-the-bern-in-abq-santa-fe.html/bernie-sanders-rally-at-the-convention-center-2>
Lukman Seyal, 7, of Rio Rancho, wears his Bernie Sanders school project
around his neck as he enters the Albuquerque Convention Center with his
family to attend a rally for the Democratic Party presidential candidate
on Friday. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)
Nearly 3,500 people gathered to hear Sanders speak in Santa Fe earlier
Friday, with some there also being kept out of the crowded facility.
Early into Sanders’ Albuquerque rally, his microphone buzzed with reverb.
“There’s too much electricity in here,” he said to the cheering crowd.
And electrified they were, rarely stopping their clapping, hooting or
booing, depending on the topics, which spanned all of Sanders’ major
platform issues in a speech that lasted a little over an hour.
A slightly weary Sanders told the *Journal* before the rally that his
trip to the state had been a whirlwind and he hadn’t really had a chance
to enjoy his visit as he races to claim the slim number of delegates
left in the presidential primary race.
Sanders still has a chance, albeit a small one, at getting the
nomination. Clinton has 96 percent of the delegates and superdelegates
needed to clinch the nomination, according to The Associated Press.
It was the topic of delegates, specifically superdelegates, that Sanders
chose as his first issue to tackle, and it elicited a thunderous boo
from the crowd. Sanders explained how superdelegates, members of the
Democratic Party chosen by party leaders who aren’t bound by the
public’s vote in guiding their nominee selection, had chosen Hillary
Clinton before Sanders and other Democrats had even entered the race.
“That’s kinda dumb,” he said in an interview before the rally.
“That is what the anointment process is about, and it is a bad idea,” he
told the crowd. “It is undemocratic … and makes a dangerous situation
for the party.”
That danger, he said, would be the selection of Clinton as the party’s
nominee.
Sanders, who has won 11 of 18 Democratic primaries since March 22,
polled this week as having a better chance of beating presumptive
Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Sanders vowed Friday to stay in the race “until the last ballot is cast.”
He told the Santa Fe crowd the same thing.
Bernie Sanders reminded the crowd at Santa Fe Community College on
Friday about New Mexico’s high poverty rate and low high school
graduation percentage
<http://www.abqjournal.com/778295/new-mexicans-feel-the-bern-in-abq-santa-fe.html/em052016e-2>
Bernie Sanders reminded the crowd at Santa Fe Community College on
Friday about New Mexico’s high poverty rate and low high school
graduation percentage. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
“We are going to fight for every last vote between now and June 14, and
we are going to take our fight to the Democratic convention,” he said.
That is in Philadelphia July 25-28.
Sanders supporter Linh Duong, 34, of Albuquerque said that if Sanders
isn’t selected as the party’s nominee in Philadelphia, she won’t be
voting for Clinton or Trump.
“I’ll write in Bernie’s name,” she said at the rally with her daughter
and her friend.
The three said they’d arrived at the Albuquerque Convention Center just
after the doors opened at 4 p.m. to make sure they got a place to “hear
him speak. Because when he speaks, it comes from the heart,” Duong said.
And she said she likes Sanders’ position on decriminalizing marijuana.
Sanders told the Albuquerque crowd it was time to “rethink the war on
drugs,” emphasizing that he believes drug addiction is a health issue
and not a criminal issue and that drug arrests and prosecutions unfairly
target minorities.
From there, Sanders traversed a dozen more social issues that are part
of his campaign, including income inequality, gender issues, paid leave
for new parents, access to subsidized education and health care,
environmental regulation and taxation on fossil fuel companies,
fracking, police culture, the banking industry, a mandatory $15 minimum
wage, immigration and the plight of economies on Native American
reservations.
Sanders’ comments about Native Americans came as his speech was winding
down around 8:30, and his comments drew the longest applause and group
chant from the audience.
“Native Americans have a profound lesson that we cannot afford to
ignore,” Sanders said. “That lesson … is as human beings we are part of
nature.”
He said the country owes a great debt to Native Americans and that if he
is elected president, he will address the struggles they face on their
reservations.
“If you go to the reservations around this country … what you find is a
people who live with horrifically high levels of poverty and
unemployment … high suicide rates,” he said. “A people living in Third
World conditions. … if elected president, we will change our
relationship with our Native American” neighbors.
Sanders supporter Kelcie Spurgin of Albuquerque brought her baby
daughter to the rally to hear just that message.
“He’s the first candidate we’ve had who is empowering all people to be a
success,” she said, including children.
Sanders pointed out New Mexico’s high child poverty rate to both the
Albuquerque and Santa Fe crowds.
“That should not happen in New Mexico. It must not happen in America.
We’re going to change our national priorities,” he said to the crowd in
Santa Fe.
A third New Mexico Sanders rally is scheduled for today at Vado
Elementary School, south of Las Cruces.
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