Bernie Sanders held his “A Future to Believe In” rally at UMass’s Mullins Center, which seats more than 9000 people, and is home to the school’s basketball and hockey teams. That choice was a gamble: given Sanders’ strength with young voters, weak turnout would have been somewhat embarrassing, But at about 4 pm, it looked like Sanders would pack the place. The line outside was huge, wrapping halfway around the building and then snaking back on itself.
Jordan Barsamian, who’d traveled to UMass from Gardner, Massachusetts, was right at the front.
“We’re here because he should be our president,” Barsaman said. “We need a revolution for sure. And this man is the only man who can do that right now who’s a politician in America.”
Joining Barsamaian at the front of the line: Maggie Wolf, who also resides in Gardner.
“I think he’s got a great chance of it, as long as people get out and vote,” Wolf said. “If you’ve got a lot of people not voting because they don’t think he’ll get in, then he’s not going to, obviously, and Clinton will probably end up the frontrunner.
“In which case,” Wolf added, “I’ll write Bernie in. I will not vote for her.”
When Sanders finally took the stage at around 7:20 pm, the Mullins Center was, if not totally full, than pretty close to it. And to say the Sanders faithful were enthusiastic would be an understatement. They cheered when he talked about how he’s raising money (“What happened in the last nine and a half months, we have received four million individual contributions”).They roared when he promised to more than double the minimum wage (“Together, we’re gonna replace that starvation wage with a living wage, $15 an hour!”). And when Sanders vowed to spend more on schools and less on prisons—“You ready for another radical idea? Together we are going to invest in jobs and education, not jails or incarceration”—the applause was thunderous.
For the record, the crowd also screamed its approval when Sanders vowed to rebuild America’s infrastructure; to take on the fossil fuel industry; and to create a single payer healthcare system, AKA Medicare for All.
The zeal was so intense that there were times it felt almost religious—a feeling that peaked near the end of Sanders’ speech.
“What we need now, at this moment in American history, is for people to rethink what it means to live in a Democratic society,” Sanders announced. “What it means is to understand that every person in this room has enormous power, if you are prepared to use that power!”
And ultimately, that may be the source of Sanders’ appeal: a promise that voters can wrest power from what they consider a corrupt system, and regain control of their own lives. It’s actually strangely similar to the pitch Donald Trump is making to Republicans. And judging from both candidates’ unexpected success, it’s a message voters across the political spectrum desperately want to hear.
