On Sept. 17, 2016 Senator Bernie Sanders came to Kent State and spoke in support of Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton. People of all ages came to the Recreation and Wellness Center to see the Vermont Senator speak about the main issues of Secretary Clinton’s campaign, while also speaking about issues he campaigned for during his run for president.
The first thing Sen. Sanders stressed was that this election isn’t about either party’s candidate, but about all of our voices. He then asked how many of us are worried about college debt – hands shot up in the air. He talked about Secretary Clinton’s plan to make college debt free and to make public college free for families with incomes of 125 thousand dollars or less.
Sen. Sanders spoke about one of his campaign’s most famous points next; wealth inequality. He said that the amount of billionaires has grown by 10 times and that our country isn’t poor, but all of the wealth is in the top 1/10 of the top one percent.
He took this opportunity to then bring up Donald Trump, which gathered a lot of booing from the crowd, and point out the many differences between him and Secretary Clinton. He mentioned how Clinton’s opponent wants tax breaks for the top one percent, and that, unlike Trump, Clinton would protect social security and would overturn citizens united.
Sen. Sanders said the debate over climate change is over, it’s real and caused by humans and Clinton understands that. He continued on about Trump, who believes climate change is a hoax, and is a hoax “perpetrated, I don’t know how he got this one, by China.”
He said that as President, Clinton would create sustainable jobs, use efficient energy sources and efficient transportation.
One of the strongest points of the rally was the talk about how diverse our nation is and how Trump wants to divide us. Sanders started by saying he doesn’t need to tell anybody about the discrimination of several minority groups throughout history, but we have come a long way since then and we will continue to fight for equality in this country.
“Now we have a candidate for president who is making [bigotry] the cornerstone of his campaign…[and it’s] dividing us up,” he said about Trump.
He said it doesn’t matter if you’re conservative or progressive, we can’t elect a president who is trying to divide our nation. Sanders brought up another point against Trump, the Birther Movement, and said Trump led the movement to “delegitimize” our first African American president.
“We as Americans are not going to fall for that bigotry,” Sanders said.
This statement was one of the best lines from the rally. He said we aren’t going back to times of bigotry, and that Trump would make us go back.
What was most important about Sanders’ speech was that he was persistent about getting people registered to vote, especially in Ohio, because Ohio is a key battleground state and this is a very important election. He made it a point to “tell your friends who aren’t voting about the Koch brothers,” and how they’re spending large sums of money. They wouldn’t be doing that unless this election was important.
The election is in less than two months and the deadline to register to vote in Ohio is Oct. 11. Sanders pressed the fact that Ohio is an important state to win during the general election, and whether you’re a conservative or progressive, your vote matters in November.
Sanders said that Clinton will raise the minimum wage to a living wage. He pushed for wage equality, women’s reproductive rights and gay rights.
He finished out the rally by saying he wants our nation to have the highest amount of voter turnout this Nov.
“Our job is to create a nation and a government which works for all of us,” Sanders said. “Not just the billionaire class and not just the top one percent.”
Sen. Sanders closed his speech by saying that he believes if Clinton wins in Ohio, she will become the next President of the United States.