Bernie Sanders gave one of his usual speeches on wealth inequality and other ideas for a Socialist Utopia, and it was everything you could hope for in a Bernie Sanders speech, assuming you’re a college student getting a useless degree or a recent graduate with a useless degree or someone who can’t find a job beyond Starbucks barista. It was a stump speech.
He came out to roaring applause. There were people cheering. There were people crying. There were probably some dudes praying to him silently, hoping he’d answer their prayers and smite the wicked DNC for all they had done. They ate up everything he was saying.
However, about midway through, the crowd died for a bit. The cheers weren’t so loud (except for the part where he mentioned universal health care), and they weren’t as enthusiastic. The crowd shots of the Bernie delegates was just sad. They looked less angry and more defeated. I felt the same way watching the speech, but mostly because I was disappointed in myself for watching it at all.
Even booing Donald Trump wasn’t so enthusiastic, and they love doing that.
See, it was supposed to rally the troops. Bring Bernie out to tout the additions he allegedly inspired in the Democratic Party platform. When he talked about that stuff – breaking up the banks, destroying the Trans Pacific Partnership, etc. – that was the most excited they got about anything, policy-wise. He was there to say “DEMOCRATS UNITE!!!” (hilarious because he’s never been a Democrat before) because holy god have you seen the news on the DNC trying to screw him out of the nomination?
His job was to make sure people ended on a high note. And they largely did. There wasn’t much booing by that point, which was disappointing for me and all. But, according to Free Beacon reporter Bill McMorris, he changed up the end of his speech a bit.
Here’s the conclusion to Bernie’s speech, per released transcript. Very moving pic.twitter.com/pS1DxSLHiw
— F. Bill McMorris (@FBillMcMorris) July 26, 2016
All in all, it wasn’t a crowd outraged by betrayal. It was more like a crowd that was just tired of fighting. They were more “Fine, screw it, I’ll vote for her.” That shouldn’t be much of a comfort to Hillary, but this is the coronation of Her Majesty, and I’m sure her people are telling her it’s always sunny in Philadelphia.
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