Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will return Thursday to Grand Prairie’s Verizon Theatre, where the former Democratic presidential candidate will rally supporters and talk progressive politics in Trump’s America.
Sanders will be joined by Keith Ellison, deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, for the DNC’s “Come Together and Fight Back Tour,” which is visiting red and purple states while stirring up opposition to the president’s agenda.
Hillary Clinton won the Texas Democratic primary with 65 percent of the vote, and Trump won the state with 52 percent, but Sanders remains a popular figure here with progressives, many who maintain that “Bernie would’ve won” over two of the most unpopular presidential candidates in U.S. history. At a February 2016 campaign rally at Verizon Theatre, Sanders turned out more than 7,000 people, a good deal of them young and previously uninspired by politics.
Democrats, recently licked and all out of sorts at both a national and local level, would do well to explore why a 75-year-old senator from Vermont has caught on with so many young voters. A good place to start may be with Sanders’ positions, which in 2016 were occasionally criticized by conservatives and centrists for pulling the Democratic Party “dangerously far left.”
From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Among the issues Democratic leaders are expected to address: raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, equal pay for women, making public college tuition free, comprehensive immigration and tax reform, rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and criminal justice reform.
Not mentioned in those talking points: the abolition of all private property and the complete overthrow of the bourgeoisie. Maybe at the next rally.
Doors at Verizon Theatre open Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The show gets underway at noon. Tickets aren’t required, but attendees are encouraged to RSVP here.
