Bernie Sanders's Anti-oligarchy Tour Is Vindication. But What Is It for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

[Celerity]

After years of raging about the billionaire capture of American politics, the senator has been filling arenas with fans who share his fury. The question now is whether—and how far—his 35-year-old ally will take the progressive mantle.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/bernie-sanders-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-anti-oligarchy

https://archive.ph/uVAAD



The playlist has stayed amazingly consistent. Bernie Sanders rails against the federal minimum “starvation wage” of $7.25 an hour. He decries climate change. He advocates for a “Medicare for All” single-payer plan to replace the wildly dysfunctional patchwork of American health care coverage. And the independent senator from Vermont hammers home how overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision is a crucial step toward reversing the billionaire takeover of US democracy.

It will soon be 10 years since Sanders delivered all those prescient notes when officially announcing his first run for president in Burlington, Vermont. Last week he reprised his hits in a series of large rallies in Western states. “He’s been talking about these things for 40 years,” says Pete D’Alessandro, a senior adviser on both of Sanders’s presidential campaigns. “He doesn’t look at these big rallies like, I’m a rock star! It’s, Can we move these ideas into a bigger population to build the movement?”

A whole lot has changed in the last near decade, of course, including Sanders’s opening act. In May 2015, he was preceded onstage by environmentalist Bill McKibben, and while every crowd loves hearing from a writer, this month’s warm-up speaker, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, drew a far more passionate audience reaction. But this time around, she’s the one, not Sanders, whose presidential prospects are exciting the left.

That chatter has grown louder because of the overflow crowds that have turned out to hear Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez stir up resistance to President Donald Trump: an estimated 1,000 people in Las Vegas, 20,000 in Tucson, 34,000 in Denver. At some of the events, billed as stops on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, there were other speakers, including Democratic Nevada congressman Steven Horsford and Democratic Texas congressman Greg Casar. But Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were the brand names and the stars of the show—with the most at stake, in very different ways.

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[msongs]

1. contacts nationwide and on the job training one suspects nt

[CoopersDad]

2. It is showing us what leadership and courage look like. nt

[gab13by13]

3. She was snubbed to be a committee chair,

Should have looked it up, maybe oversight, yeah it was the oversight committee, Gerry Connolly beat her out. Hope I spelled Gerry's name right.

Need to be a moderate I guess?

[Shipwack]

7. Needed to be someone...

Who had longevity. Not talent, not ability to actually do the job, just someone who had stuck around long enough without dying.

He clearly deserved it; he had senority!

[wordstroken]

4. This is how it's done!!!

Love that photo!

[usonian]

5. Bernie walked out of an interview when asked if AOC was running for president.

These are two sincere, selfless GREAT individuals just doing what their hearts tell them to do.

And they won't be deterred by the inane drivel and idiot comparisons that media want to substitute for their compelling message.

Media clowns couldn't even fetch their coffee.

[luvallpeeps]

6. Filling a void?

I hear a lot of people here, and on other forums wondering who is going to do something while they’re dismantling our democracy. I’m glad for anyone to do anything besides beg for $ and campaign. They inform and energize. Galvanize the fury. There is plenty to do. I’ve never been in a place like this before. Even though, for years, I’ve seen it creeping, it’s still shocking how they aren’t even trying to sugarcoat their hate and racism. They’ve tapped into America’s weak spot, and boy are they driving a wedge straight through. I don’t know how this will turn out, but I applaud anyone who is giving their time, blood sweat and tears to try and stop it.