It came ahead of next Tuesday’s primary in NY, a state that has turned into one of outsize importance for Sanders in his primary challenge to frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The rally featured speeches from union members as well as director Spike Lee, musician Graham Nash, and actress Rosario Dawson, and the men standing next to me repeatedly asked, “Why is she still talking?” during a speech given by racial justice activist Linda Sarsour, whose voice they said “sounded like Clinton’s”. The atmosphere was certainly filled with excitement.
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Sanders also spoke about Washington Square Park’s proximity to the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on nearby Christopher Street, which is perceived as the location of the birth of the LGBT rights movement, following police raids in the 1960s. Polls consistently show Clinton beating him by double digits in her adopted home state. The popular New York City-based alternative rock band Vampire Weekend will stage a concert at the rally. Would we do what every other campaign is doing and establish a super PAC?
Sanders has been holding numerous outdoor rallies in New York City, despite sometimes frigid temperatures there over the past week – such as the rally he held in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn last Friday, which can be seen in a full replay, in the video below.
Sanders and his supporters stressed several times during the rally that New York’s is a closed primary, meaning only those registered as Democrat can vote. Run amok? Highjinks? Monkeyshine?
The rally had the ambience of a 1960s anti-war protest like Sanders would have attended in his youth. Pockets of the crowd smelled unmistakably of marijuana. Jeff Merkley of OR wrote an op-ed in the New York Times Wednesday morning endorsing Sanders.
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“When we stand together – black and white and Latino and Asian American – when we do not allow the Donald Trumps of the world to divide us up, there is nothing we can’t accomplish”, the Vermont senator said.
