The day began with a student assembly at the St. Johnsbury Academy, where Sanders announced that he would be back in the spring to speak at the school’s commencement. He gave a stripped-down version of his stump speech with a focus on education, and then took questions for a good half an hour. Many of the questions were about education or the future of work, as the high schoolers face a future of college debt and shrinking opportunities.
The most engaging moment came when a student, who’s probably an avid reader of Ayn Rand, stepped to the microphone and asked the senator why redistribution of wealth is a good thing. Why, he said, “shouldn’t society not allow people to earn what they earn, and not redistribute wealth at all?”
Sanders complimented the student for “being a brave guy because he knows my views.” He then asked the student, “Who pays for your education?”
“Um, I guess technically the state,” the student replied.
Sanders: “Who is the state?”
Student: “The taxpayers.”
Sanders: “Well, why should a guy who’s 50 years old and never had kids, or his kids are grown up, why should he pay for your education? Why the hell should I pay for your education?”
He went on to state his own views on wealth, equity and the importance of a strong society — without belittling the student in any way and acknowledging that many share his point of view.
It was a masterful moment from a guy with decades of experience handling crowds.
After the Academy, it was on to St. Johnsbury’s Good Living Senior Center. On his way in, a preteen girl asked him to autograph her copy of his book, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In. As he complied, your reporter pulled out his smartphone and snapped a photo of the two. Afterward, I handed my phone to the girl so she could email the picture to herself. She could barely use the keyboard because her hands were shaking; she was in awe of the moment and spoke excitedly of “Instagramming it” for all her friends.
On to a packed room, where Sanders tailored his remarks to the mostly older audience. Health care, Medicare, Social Security, the insecure retirements of millions of Americans, the high cost of prescription drugs.
If there were any Trump supporters in the room, they were awfully darn quiet. The Sanders people, on the other hand, gave their hero a rapturous reception.
One man prefaced his question by saying, “You shouldn’t be here.” He paused. “You should be in the White House!”
The audience erupted.
After spending most of an hour with the group, Sanders headed for I-91 and a closed meeting with staff at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction. He then headed to a “press conference” at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro.
“Press conference” is in quotes because, well, there was no opportunity to ask questions. Which, I’m given to understand, is generally a feature of such events.
He was there for a worthy purpose: the announcement of $300,000 in federal and state grants for Windham Grows, a first-in-Vermont “small business accelerator” — which provides encouragement and expertise to entrepreneurs and startup operators.
Windham Grows is an offshoot of the Strolling of the Heifers, a fixture in downtown Brattleboro and a cause that’s near to Sanders’ heart. He played a role in getting the Stroll off the ground, and he has attended every year — “except when he was running for president,” said Stroll founder Orly Munzing.
Sanders gave a longer version of his stump speech with the familiar talking points — wealth inequality, health care as a human right, free college tuition, the “obscene” cost of prescription drugs, the scourge of the Citizens United decision, the need for a $15 per hour minimum wage. And he slammed the “weakness” of the Democratic party for allowing people like Donald Trump and Paul Ryan to gain power.
Sanders left before the event ended — he had another meeting to get to.
His final event of the day was a full-bore town meeting at the Riverside Middle School in Springfield. The room was packed, and the audience boisterous. They got The Full Bernie — everything from health care to tax policy to education to climate change to what he called the worst aspect of the Trump administration: its “intentional decision to divide us, getting one group to hate another.”
He also provided a fair bit of encouragement.
“The views you hold are not fringe,” he said. “They are the majority views of the American people.”
He continued, “This is no time for despair. Now is the time to be as smart and creative as you can be. We can win if we are gutsy and smart and willing to engage in the political process in a way we’ve never done before.”
For a reporter who’d been following Sanders all day, the talking points were familiar. But he gave them the same emphasis and spirit in Springfield as he did ten hours earlier in St. Johnsbury. The man is a trooper, and he can sure work an audience.
He was not, however, available to the press. We got a two-minute encounter after the school assembly and that was about it. Sanders had a tight schedule and he rushed from event to event. No time for ink-stained wretches, nor even for their electronic colleagues.
But hey, at least he was in Vermont for an entire day, and held four public events in three cities. He didn’t talk to us, but he made a couple thousand people very happy.
During his run for president and much of its aftermath, Sanders has been largely absent from these parts. One has to wonder if Thursday’s whirlwind will turn out to be the opening sally of his as-yet-unofficial run for reelection in 2018.
He heard nothing all day to discourage the idea.
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Dude, we get it, you don’t like Bernie and wish he’d talk to Seven Days. Let it go and try to report the news in a less snarky tone, thanks.
Listen, I would be the very first to criticize this writer, but if by reading this you concluded that he “doesn’t like Bernie,” you are completely out of your mind.
Big deal bernie, the sellout..trying to make himself look good that he cares about Vermonters..you believe that then I have some ocean front property to sell you, I’ll even throw in the Brooklyn bridge..
Wonder why he’s avoiding Chittenden County? Oh yeah, 12,000 plus people watching their home values evaporate and children’s health under threat thanks to Bernie’s basing of the F-35 fighter jet and its expanded “not suitable for residential use” zone. What part of the stump speech covers Bernie’s support of placing Lockheed-Martin’s budget-busting war jet right in the core of neighborhoods filled with immigrant refugees; the working poor and their children; and the elderly?
#STILLSANDERS2020!
We were robbed of the most important moral leader of the 21st century.
Bernie and Trump share a repugnant trait in that both have reaped the political benefits of hatefully attempting to divide America: Trump’s nascent political success is partially due to his efforts to encourage voters to despise and distrust Moslems; Bernie’s longtime political succees is entirely due to his efforts to encourage voters to share his odious class-envy to despise and dustrust “the wealthy.”
Bernie and Trump share a repugnant trait inasmuchas both have reaped the political benefits of hatefully attempting to divide America: Trump’s nascent political success is partially due to his efforts to encourage voters to despise and distrust Moslems; Bernie’s longtime political succees is entirely due to his efforts to encourage voters to share his odious class-envy to despise and dustrust “the wealthy.”
WAHRHEIT You are wrong about Bernie diving us because he teaches hate of the wealthy–He does not. What he despises is the system that allows the wealthy an unfair advantage to get ubedr wealthy at the expense of the rest of Americans. From the end of WWII to about the mid to late 1970’s all Americans were doing pretty well financially. Corporations had asd high as a 90% TAX RATE (ALTHOUGH THEY DIDN’T PAY THAT MUCH), THE EMPLOYEES HAD UNIONS IN MANY CASES THAT KEPT WAGES IN LINE WITH WHAT THE CEO MADE. Political CONTRIBUTIONS WERE REGULATED AS WERE THE BANKS. A bank was either a commercial bank, or an investment bank, but not both. Once Glass-Stegall was totally repealed (thanks to both Republicans and Democrats, bank could invest in Risky trade practices with depositors money and when the bubble burst, the Banks got a bal out and thousands of Americans lost their jobs and homes. Bernie and Berniecrrats don’t hate the wealthy, they just want a level playing field where they have an oipportunity to also gain from their hard work.
Arleen Henton:
FYI. The highest statutory corporate tax rate in the US was 52.8% in the late 1960s. The rate was above 50% only in the 1950s and 1960s. You’re quite right to state that the EFFECTIVE rate has always been (and still is) MUCH lower than the statutory rate.
The PERSONAL income tax rate was over 90% in the 1950s, and was lowered to 70% under JFK.
All Bernie cares about is Bernie. Just because he isn’t orange, doesn’t make him any better than Trump. BernieBros and Trumpeters are the same as far as I am concerned and can bully all you want but it doesn’t change that fact.
The 90% was a marginal rate example: your first 5 million taxed at 10%, the next 5 million st 20%, the next 5 million at 30%, and so on and your last 5 million at 90%. It wasn’t a flat tax
Thing is old bernie won’t be running for Pres in 2020.. he’ll be in prison alongside his bank fraud janey.. You know the one who lied, changed pledges amounts, closed the Burlington College…Maybe he’ll be a rock star in prison.. He needs to go back to Brooklyn. The draft dodger socialist crook ..