"Huh. He really touched a nerve out there."

[lostnfound]

Donald Rumsfeld, who fortunately is occupying his time with a "Churchill solitaire" app instead of stirring up Armageddon, was interviewed on morning Joe. Remarking on the crowds that Bernie Sanders is drawing of 10,000 or 15,000 people, he said that most politicians might get 500 or 1,000 on a good day. "Wow. Yeah. He seems to have touched a nerve out there."

Wow. Inside the bubble, they are surprised if any of the little people even bother about politics. Inside the bubble, they know that Big-Money drives politics,and the idea that the masses, who usually have nothing more to offer than one easily-manipulated-vote, would bother to present themselves to stand at a rally, seems as absurd as people who stand on the street corner holding up signs that say "The End is Near. "

Inside the bubble, they act like Jodie Foster in Elysium, basically looking down on the trampled poor planet below, effectively saying, "Ick! Get them off me!"

I am not in the struggling 90% but the vast majority of people I grew up with are. And I remember a different America.
I once held up a sign at a protest when the war in Iraq was starting. "Greed Has Stolen Our Democracy". Wars sometimes get started for profit, and the will of the people to NOT go to war in Iraq was disregarded. If you didn't want a "Democratic Socialist" for president, during Bubble People, you should have left a few more scraps on the table for the 99%. You tilted the playing field too far, rigged the game too intensely, and yes, the "Nerve" has had enough.
I don't know how much hope I have, because I don't underestimate the tricks they've got stuck up their sleeve to convince the easily-manipulated public that up is down, light is dark, and slavery is freedom. But without a healthy middle class, without economic opportunity, there is no America. So no, I don't have a whole lot of hope, but I do have a little. Godspeed, Bernie. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for the sacrifice.

[PatrickforO]

1. Without a healthy middle class, without economic opportunity,

there is NO America.

That's why I'm for Bernie.

[LiberalArkie]

2. Well said, thank you

[merrily]

3. Didn't Sanders draw close to 30,000 in L.A.? I think the Boston crowd had to have been

close to that, but the Sanders' campaign lowballed it for some reason.

That he has crowds of 10,000 or more sitting indoors is impression enough. However, he has had crowds standing outside in overflow as big as 8,000.

I am not struggling either, thanks to parents who struggled to make sure I finished high school, as opposed to having to quit school to contribute to the household. From there, I handled the rest of my education on my own, except for still not being expected to contribute to the household. But, not struggling has not made me indifferent to those who must struggle and I thank whatever is responsible for that--nature, nurture, deities, whatever. I am grateful not to be Donald Trump or even Trump-ish.

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Boston was 33,000 * Portland, OR was 28,000 * LA was 27,500 * Seattle was 15,000 *

Tucson was 13,000

Boulder CO was 13,000

Phoenix was 11,000

Dallas was 8,000

Birmingham, AL was 7,000

Houston was 5,200

(Boston had a 4,000 overflow)

I just keep track of all his very large crowds. He's had many, many rallies with 2,000-3,000 people attending.

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[merrily]

7. The Sanders campaign estimated attendance at the Boston rally at 20,000.

I think that was way under actual attendance.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1280&pid=58512

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1280&pid=58174

See also, http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2015/10/03/bernie-sanders-boston-rally/

Anyway, the numbers in the OP article are way low.

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. I will change my number then. n/t

[merrily]

13. I believe your numbers are closer to the reality. I always thought 20,000 was lowball, as the

links I posted indicate. Also, it was never clear whether the 20,000 did or did not include the thousands in overflow.

[PWPippin]

8. Rally in Portland, Maine drew over 8,000 or over 12 percent of the population of our fair city.

[in_cog_ni_to]

11. Thank you! Will add that to my list!

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[monmouth4]

4. Wonderful OP. Many thanks for your thoughts..n/t

[n8dogg83]

6. Great OP. I couldn't agree more. I have very little hope left in the system we have. What hope i do

have rests with Bernie Sanders and the revolution he is trying to start. Let's make it happen!!

[lostnfound]

20. Thanks!

They need a course correction before it is too late.

[tex-wyo-dem]

9. Thanks, lostnfound...

Beautifully written OP, and spot on!

[The Blue Flower]

10. Kudos to you for watching

I changed the station as soon as they announced he'd be on. He should be in prison and no one should be asking him his opinion on anything.

[Duval]

14. My husband and I helped hold a sign "Where are Our Civil Rights?" during a protest when Rumsfeld

came to UNC for a talk in 2002. He stared at me and I stared back. What a jerk. Thank you for the OP, lostnfound.

[Gmak]

15. Extremely well-said, esp. the part about tilting the playing field too far.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. The nerve of us wanting more than the few crumbs they leave us.

How very rude of us to point out their greed.

[Binkie The Clown]

17. I think Hillary's biggest problem is that she, too, is inside the bubble. n/t

[Ivan Kaputski]

18. ^^^

[azmom]

19. They freakin stole our homes, our retirement,

and our kids futures. What the hell did they think was going to happen?

[CharlotteVale]

21. It feels like Bernie is our last hope. Hillary is not on the side of the 90 percent.

[questionseverything]

22. when i get hopeless i think of harriet tubman

now that was a hopeless situation...and yet she overcame everything and changed the course of history

so each of us has to channel her fearlessness

"you hear the dogs,keep runnin,keep agoin"