Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair
How strange that due to the disastrous policies of “their president,” Montana’s all-Republican Congressional delegation and governor are now too scared to even face Montanans in town halls. And yet Bernie Sanders flies into Missoula on his national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour and draws “thunderous applause and standing ovations” from an over-capacity crowd of 9,000 Montanans on an afternoon in the middle of the week.
Why? Because people know Bernie is telling the truth about what’s going on in this nation, not fabricating excuses and downplaying the very real damages taking place while they hide under their MAGA hats.
He’s also correctly calling out the fact that both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for the on-going tragedy that sees American democracy, once the envy of the world, turning into an oligarchy of billionaires whose greed knows no bounds or even a scintilla of concern for “the little people.”
Nor was Bernie speaking from a bullet-proof cage surrounded by nasty looking thugs with sunglasses and earbuds to ensure no one gets close to him. Quite the opposite — top Republicans nowadays don’t dare do what Bernie did — walk out into the overflow crowd of thousands to shake hands and talk directly to the people who couldn’t get in.
The few Republican politicians who dare venture into the realm of “we the people” are being met by angry crowdswhose interests and hope for a better future they have so grievously betrayed. Just ask 91-year old GOP Senator Chuck Grassley, who was bluntly told “his” people in supposedly “red state” Iowa are now really “pissed” because he won’t stand up to “dictator” Trump.
In an astounding contrast, there’s no denying that Bernie’s huge crowds are showering this 83-year old dynamo with love and hope, many with tears in their eyes because his words go straight to the challenges they are experiencing and they want to believe that somehow we can overcome the insulated and isolated billionaires and return our government to the people, not the 1 percenters who want ever more, no matter the cost to the rest of us.
That’s part of the reason Bernie Sanders is the most popular Senator in the nation. In his own words from his Missoula speech: “We can either have extreme wealth inequality, with the toxic division and corruption that it requires to survive, or we can have a fair economy for working people along with the democracy and freedoms that uphold it. But we cannot have both.”
Speaking truth to power, Bernie laid it out: ““We don’t accept this blue state–red state nonsense. We are the United States of America, not red states, not blue states. I believe honestly that I speak for conservatives, moderates and progressives, for the overwhelming majority of the American people, who understand that there is something fundamentally wrong in our campaign finance system where billionaires can buy elections.”
Apparently that rankled Montana’s millionaire governor, Greg Gianforte, who posted: “Bernie Sanders and AOC are in Montana pushing their far–left agenda — but Montanans rejected them and their puppet Joe Biden after four years of failed policies. The people have spoken. They aren’t feeling the Bern.”
I got news for the gov — who has never drawn anything close to Bernie’s crowds or approval ratings. Bernie won the Montana Democratic primary election in 2016 because he, not Hillary Clinton, spoke to Montanans’ concerns. They “felt the Bern” then and obviously are “feeling the Bern” again. Why? Because they’re feeling burned — by Gianforte, our do-nothing congressional delegation, and by the eternally lying fool in the Oval Office.
© Counter Punch