Just at the sight of actor Danny DeVito, the crowd went crazy at the Bernie Sanders’ rally at Affton High School on Sunday.
DeVito said few words, but they were all the right ones for the crowd that was largely under 30.
“I feel the Bern,” he said to the more than 2,000 attendants. “A man who speaks the truth. A man who’s got the knowledge. A man who has been there for us since the beginning of his career. I am very excited to introduce to you the next president of the United States. We need you Obi Wan.”
DeVito was the last of a line of speakers to liven up the room, including local State Rep. Clem Smith and Communication Workers of America union rep. Clyde Clemmings.
The national union endorsed Bernie in December.
Former NAACP leader Benjamin Jealous also took a stab at Donald Trump’s’ recent rallies gone violent, saying, “This is what a rally looks like.”
Sanders touched upon many of his “political revolutionary” points that he’s been pushing since his campaign started 10 months – when he represented only 3 percent in the polls and trailed about 70 percent behind Clinton. He has since won nine states.
“I think what this campaign is about in its deepest sense is asking the American people to think outside of the box and think outside of the options that the Congress and the corporate media ask you to choose,” he said.
Following his recent win in Michigan, Sanders told the crowd that he can beat out his closest Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in Missouri – along with Ohio, Illinois and Florida – in Tuesday’s primary.
“It’s about getting a government that works for all of us not just the 1 percent,” he said. “This campaign is succeeding because we are doing something very radical. We are telling the people the truth.”
He talked about living in a nation with a “rigged economy,” where the top one-tenth percent now own almost as much wealth as the bottom ninety percent.
“This is not some kind of struggling third-world country,” he said. “This is the United States of America, where a handful of billion control the political life of this country because they can make unlimited campaign contributions and they control the economy as well.”
It was apparent that the Black Lives Matter movement has rubbed off on Sanders when he spoke about criminal justice reform.
“When we talk about criminal justice reform, if a police offer breaks the law, like any other public official, that officer must be held accountable,” he said. “The vast majority officers are honest and hardworking, but nobody is above the law.”
He also spoke about demilitarizing police departments, which he has been saying even before his presidential candidacy, and adding more diversity to police ranks.
America has more imprisoned people than any other country, he said, and he followed that up with youth unemployment rates – white youth at 33 percent, black youth at 51 percent and Latinos at 36 percent.
“We are going to invest in our young people with jobs and education, not jails and incarceration,” he said.
He also spoke about legislation that he has introduced to take marijuana out of the federal Controlled Substance Act – which categorizes pot alongside heroine, he said.
“Heroine is a killer drug,” he said. “Over the last 30 years, millions of Americans have received records for possession of marijuana. It is long overdue for us to rethink the war on drugs.”
Having marijuana charges can also affect people’s ability to gain employment, he said.
Sanders touted that he has refused to establish a Super PAC in his campaign or “beg” for contributions from Wall Street and drug companies.
“We said to the American people, if you want to support a candidate who is going to help an economy who helps all people, help us out,” he said.
Since then, he has received more than five million individual contributions — more individual contributions than any candidate in America’s history, he said.
Probably the most concrete action he pointed to was his proposal to spend $1 trillion on rebuilding public infrastructure, including water systems. He used the catastrophe in Flint, Michigan – where polluted water caused health damage to many residents – to stress why this is important.
Possibly his biggest applause came from his support of the $15/hour minimum wage. He said the Walton family, who owns more Walmart, has more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of American citizens.
“Because Walmart pays wages that are so low, many of their employees are forced to go on Medicaid, food stamps and subsidized housing,” he said. “Do you know who pays for those?”
“We do,” the crowd shouted.
His message to the Walton family was to “get off of welfare and pay your workers a living wage.”
Sanders said he’s learned something “simple but profound” about winning primary elections.
“When working people and young people and older people come out and are determined to end establishment politics and establishment economics,” he said, “when that voter turnout is high, we win.”
