Bernie Sanders electrifies young crowd ahead of Tuesday vote

Says the future of democracy in America is at stake

By Jordan Scenna
Deputy Editor

An animated Bernie Sanders directs students to vote against election deniers. Ruby Go | Washtenaw Voice

The energy inside Rackham Auditorium pulsed like a rock concert on Saturday while a young crowd waited for the night’s headliner, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), to take the stage. The rally on the University of Michigan campus urged students to vote Tuesday in what he described as, “the most consequential midterm election of our lifetimes.”

The event, which hosted over 1,000 people, was organized by NextGen America, the largest youth voting organization in the country, and is part of a nationwide tour to encourage young people to vote on Nov. 8. NextGen President Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez also spoke, along with Mia Senchal, MoveOn’s campaign director.

Since his first presidential run in 2016, Sanders has been a galvanizing figure for young people. “[Sanders] is the reason I wanted to go into public health,” said Jordyn Imhoff, a University of Michigan student who couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend Sanders’ speech.

Jordyn Imhoff talks to an activist about Prop 2, a voting rights proposal that will appear on the ballot Tuesday. Ruby Go| Washtenaw Voice

Imhoff, a natural-science writer attending the event, wants to see the country “go blue” this midterm but worries about a pandemic of “desperation” and “hopelessness” crippling voter turnout. “There’s an obligation when you see the country turning a certain way to show up,” Imhoff said.

Sanders received multiple standing ovations throughout the evening. His candid take on the overturning of Roe v. Wade elicited laughs and cheers from the crowd.

Audience members give a standing ovation during Sanders’ speech. Ruby Go | Washtenaw Voice

“We have a situation where the geniuses on the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, which is so outrageous, it’s hard to comprehend,” Sanders said.

He also threw a jab at the “wimpy” reaction by former President Trump and other right-wing extremists who continue to deny the results of the 2020 presidential election. “When you have a candidate saying ‘the only way I can lose is if there’s fraud,’ that’s a cowardly response to political defeat.”

According to FiveThirtyEight, a polling and political analysis organization, 60% of Americans will have an election denier on their ballot this fall.

“This campaign, in a very significant way, is about the future of American democracy,” Sanders said. “It’s about Trump and his right-wing allies undermining democracy by peddling a big lie that he won the election.”

Sanders also talked about campaign-finance reform and overturning Citizens United, a Supreme Court ruling that determined corporations and other outside groups can spend unlimited money on elections. Getting money out of politics has been Sanders’ bedrock position for years, and his perseverance on the issue has inspired young students like Lillian Shriner, who opened for Sanders at the event, to get involved.

Lillian Shriner, a University of Michigan student and organizer for UN-PAC Michigan during her speech. Ruby Go | Washtenaw Voice

Shriner is an organizer for Un-Pac, a national student organization working to get money out of politics. Shriner told a crowd of her peers that “big money” doesn’t care about issues that impact the younger generation, like climate change, healthcare, racial justice, and education. The only way those issues get addressed is by voting.

“We have to vote. Big money celebrates when young people like us don’t vote. We should disappoint them every chance we get.”

Sanders spoke at length about the “billionaire problem,” and how it affects not only our politics but our economy. “Our nation is rapidly moving toward an oligarchic form of society. We now have more concentration of ownership than we have ever had in the history of this country.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders up in arms over the country’s current political climate. Ruby Go | Washtenaw Voice

According to a New York Times report, Sanders isn’t wrong. Wall Street investment firms Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street have a combined $22 trillion in assets. This amount is equal to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the entire country. These three firms are the majority shareholders in companies like Comcast, Pfizer, and Tyson Foods, among hundreds of others. 

“We are taking on enormously powerful people with more money than you can possibly dream of,” Sanders said. “The good news is, at the end of the day, there are more of us than there are of them.”

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