Editor’s note: This article is by Rob Wolfe of the Valley News, in which it was first published Aug. 3, 2015.
CLAREMONT, N.H. — Over the course of an hour Sunday evening, presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders laid out nearly his entire platform to an upbeat crowd of voters who filled the Common Man Restaurant and spilled into the street.
Time and again, the independent senator from Vermont drove home the populist message that has drawn crowds of thousands in early primary states. At his last of six New Hampshire appearances this weekend, voters met each of his suggestions with enthusiasm, in a town meeting-style event that at times more resembled a preacher’s call-and-response.
Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, called for reforms to address economic inequality, noting that 0.1 percent of the population controls a disproportionate amount of the country’s wealth; a man shouted back, “Disgusting!”
Sanders mentioned the influence Monsanto, the agricultural giant, had on lawmakers; audience members hissed.
Sanders lamented the political clout of the billionaire Koch brothers, listing policies of theirs he found offensive; after each one, a woman cried, “No! No!”
Officials from the Vermont senator’s campaign estimated afterward that more than 550 people had packed the banquet hall of the Common Man Restaurant, filled an overflow room and waited outside to see him.
“We are the richest country in the history of the world, and there is nothing that we cannot accomplish,” he told voters on Sunday, arguing that the richest Americans should help fund the sweeping reforms he proposes in such areas as health care, higher education, and the financial system. “I would like you to think big. I would like you to think what kind of country we can become.”
As evidence of the scale of his ideas, Sanders mentioned to voters that this year he had introduced a bill calling for a $1 trillion, five-year jobs project to revamp the United States’ transportation infrastructure — which he said would be financed by a tax on Wall Street.
Initially considered a long shot, Sanders, who is running as a Democrat, has gained ground recently versus the party’s front-runner, Hillary Clinton. He explained his strategy to voters this way: no personal attacks, no super PACs, just the issues.
Many of those present on Sunday agreed with Sanders that his message was his strongest asset.
The senator’s best path to victory, said New Hampshire state Rep. Lee Walker Oxenham, D-Plainfield, is to keep on “doing exactly what he’s doing: speaking out all over the country and getting those small donations.”
During the event, Sanders told the crowd that his campaign, which so far has reported to the Federal Election Commission more than $15 million in fundraising, had received contributions averaging $35 from about 300,000 individuals.
“This is a people’s campaign,” he said.
For comparison, Clinton’s campaign raised about $45 million in the first quarter of her candidacy, with an additional $20 million in super PACs that she does not control.
Sanders compared his presidential bid to that of Barack Obama, “a personal friend,” he said, whose one “very big mistake” after the 2008 election was to give up the efforts at grassroots mobilization that had put him in office.
To enact comprehensive populist reforms, Sanders told voters, “I will need you the day after the election as well.”
For her part, Oxenham was sold. After the event, she wore a Sanders sticker and carried his campaign signs under her arm.
His emphasis on addressing climate change had swayed her, she said: “It’s the reason I ran (in November 2014). I think it’s the most important thing facing us. … We have to act now because there’s a short window before we’re in a situation where things can become irreversible.”
Donna and Angela Montano, sisters and Claremont residents who described themselves as “rah-rah” Sanders supporters, said he was wise to focus so heavily on the early primaries while building momentum behind his platform.
As for whether the senator’s most ambitious plans — breaking up the big banks, subsidizing college tuition, instituting universal single-payer health care — were feasible, Donna Montano said, “In my lifetime, do I think it’s doable? Yeah.”
Progressives who voted for Obama in 2008, and who expected him to accomplish more during his presidency, will provide significant support to Sanders, Montano predicted.
Based on parts of the Vermont senator’s platform, the elderly may find him appealing as well. During a question-and-answer, Kathleen Allen, of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, asked Sanders what his response was to some Republican candidates’ calls for a raising of the retirement age to save Social Security from insolvency.
(Jeb Bush, for example, has floated the idea of gradually raising the age of eligibility to 70.)
Sanders said that those Republicans’ policies were “based on their belief that we are just a poor nation that cannot afford Social Security,” and noted that he had introduced a bill to raise the cap on the payroll tax that funds Social Security, a move he said would keep the program alive for the next 50 years.
Bill Cable, a Cornish resident who said he likely would support Sanders, said he liked Hillary Clinton but was concerned about her family becoming a “dynasty,” as well as about her personal wealth.
On making predictions about Sanders’ chances at the White House, Cable hearkened back to the 2008 presidential election.
“I didn’t switch to Obama until after the primary,” Cable said. “I didn’t think he stood a chance, and he did, and so I’m not very good at predicting feasibility.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.
