I've Never Been to a Bernie Sanders Rally Like This

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The Fight Oligarchy Tour is drawing larger crowds than Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign ever did, but it’s also drawing a different sort of crowd, writes Mother Jones Senior Reporter Tim Murphy.

Although there were still more “Feel the Bern” t-shirts than you can count, at two stops in Arizona last week, most of the people I talked to were not longtime supporters. A significant number had not even attended a political event or a protest before. Many of these voters found Sanders’ long-running message of a growing oligarchy newly resonant at a time when the richest man in the world has been given carte blanche to dismantle public institutions. Above all, they showed up because they wanted to hear elected officials express the sort of frustration and rage Democratic voters have been feeling for months.

They wanted to be where the fight was. Sanders’ rallies offer both a lifeline and a warning to a party that hasn’t yet found its footing: Start going after Trump—or voters might start going after you, too.

These people are as furious at Republicans right now as you might expect. Musk would probably find a warmer reception on Mars. But what separates the energy of the Sanders-led Fight Oligarchy Tour from the 2017-era Resistance is that a lot of the anger is trained at their own party. Democratic voters’ approval of congressional Democrats has fallen 35 points since last year, according to a recent survey, and rallygoers at the two Arizona stops took aim at what they perceived as a toothless approach to the new administration.

The speakers on stage during the tour sought to channel this frustration into immediate action and longer-term transformation. Sanders, who has said he went on tour only after seeing the tepid response to Trump from the Democratic Party, chose his rally locations strategically. They are all either in competitive but Republican-held House districts, or close to them.

Sanders is, in large part, still giving the speech about oligarchy he’s been giving for the last decade. But the 83-year-old was a bit more soulful, as he spoke with urgency about threats that are now not just theoretical but existential.

And now that people have come around to Sanders’ diagnosis of the problem, he hopes they will accept that the prescriptions he and his allies are offering.

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