Since no one else is reporting on this, I guess it’s up to me.
I went with my daughter to the Bernie Sanders Rally in Oklahoma City today. Some takeaways: The Cox Convention Center venue was mostly full, with about 6,000 attending (per the newsok reporting). This isn’t the first time I’d heard Bernie speak; I’d gone to a rally he held in Dallas back in August.
He sounded different this time, calmer, more relaxed. He’s found his ‘inside voice’. He smiled more, a real smile and not a pasted on grimace. He bantered back and forth with the audience and cracked some jokes— mostly at The Donald’s expense. In other words, this was not the image of a candidate driven towards desperation after the South Carolina primary. No, Bernie seemed someone who had his eye on the big picture, is playing the long game, and is exactly where he wants to be in his campaign.
He was more pointed in taking on Hillary’s shortcomings while never making it personal. He went there on the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches. He brought up Goldman Sachs, and repeatedly hammered on the issue of campaign financing. Bernie has started to take on Trump, enjoying making fun of him (yuuuuge), but pointing out the destructiveness of the hatred Trump is peddling. Most important to me, he made the point that he can’t do it alone. He wants a revolution and it will need all our involvement
The 16 y/o Daughter’s reaction: First of all, she needed no coaxing to come. She listened, really listened to Bernie. Taking it all in. Did not look at her phone once. Free college for all—that got her attention. She found his jokes funny. Afterwards I asked what she learned from the rally. She answered, “That everybody should vote for Bernie Sanders and I don’t understand why anyone would vote for anybody else.” From a taciturn teenager I’d translate that into enthusiastic high praise.
The crowd: the most amiable large public gathering I have seen in this town in a long time. Largely young, but a good mix of ages. Hispanics were at least as well represented as their share in the local population. African Americans were probably underrepresented by half. Native Americans were a definite presence and were acknowledged with a traditional dance as one of the warmup events. Lots of folks brought their kids. I guess we all wanted to how them what democracy could look like if it worked the way it should.
Bernie’s relaxed confidence inspired me today. I think he has a good chance of prevailing here in Oklahoma on Tuesday.
I base this on another impression: A couple of weeks ago, I volunteered to canvass for Bernie’s campaign, spending several hours knocking on doors and talking with Democratic and Independent voters about Bernie’s platform and candidacy. Over half of the people I talked to already knew about Bernie and were planning to vote for him, a third were undecided, and only a couple said they would be voting for Ms. Clinton. When our canvassing group reconvened, we shared noted and the others had similar percentages. This is not a scientific poll, but it would give Bernie a big lead if it was, and I’m not so sure how accurate any recent polls here have been anyway.
Definitely Feeling the Bern today in Oklahoma!