To the editor:
When I took the stage in Los Angeles yesterday and looked out at the crowd, I could see people a half-mile away. Thirty-six thousand people attended — it is the largest rally we have ever had.
And when I see the record crowds like the ones we had yesterday or the ones in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, I believe it might just be possible that this country is on the brink of the political revolution we have been talking about for a long time.
These people are not showing up because I am running for something. There is no presidential campaign happening.
These are people attending in huge numbers who are not just saying NO to oligarchy, but they are saying
- YES to raising the minimum wage,
- YES to expanding Social Security,
- YES to guaranteeing health care as a human right,
- YES, to cutting the cost of prescription drugs,
- YES to paid family and medical leave,
- YES to equal pay for equal work,
- YES to more affordable housing,
- YES to making childcare and higher education affordable to all,
- YES to taking on the existential threat of climate change.
And most importantly, they are saying YES to a government and an economy that works for all of us and not just the billionaire class and the oligarchs.
Later today, we will be in Salt Lake City, Utah. On Monday we go to Boise, Idaho, before returning to California on Tuesday for two rallies in districts held by Republicans and ending this leg of the tour in Missoula, Montana, on Wednesday.
We will be streaming each rally on YouTube and Twitter, and I hope you will tune in to watch and share the links with your friends.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders
Burlington, Vermont
