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At this point in the campaign season it is redundant to inform readers that Bernie Sanders, the Independent Senator from Vermont running for the Democratic nomination, has made a prolific impact on the voting public. He has.

Before Bernie Sanders, candidates rarely if ever affirmed that black lives do, in fact, matter. Unequivocally and without hesitation.

Before Bernie Sanders, you would be hard pressed to hear from either a Democrat or Republican candidate about prison reform—closing private prisons and immoral (probably illegal) immigrant detention centers.

Before Bernie Sanders, ending the colossal failure that is the U.S.’s War on Drugs seemed like a pipe dream. Treating drug addiction as a mental health issue; ending the discriminatory, racist mandatory minimum sentencing for low level drug offenders; and holding police departments accountable for murdering predominately African American and Latino individuals—these are issues which the grassroots and third party candidates have been yelling themselves hoarse about for years and years.

Finally, a mainstream candidate is listening (or rather, a truly Left candidate who is moving the mainstream).

With a 19 April primary in New York, Bernie Sanders and his rival Hillary Clinton have been traversing the lengths of the Empire State in hopes of galvanizing support among a voter base that has notoriously low turnout numbers.

But last night at Washington Square Park in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, the prospect of raising voter turnout in New York City seemed absolutely within grasp.

Some 28,000 utterly electrified people joined Bernie Sanders for his “A Future to Believe In GOTV Rally” last night, with some speculating it was one of the largest such political rallies in recorded history.

Joining Sanders on stage was a myriad group of activist, union and celebrity supporters.

You can watch the full event here.

In her speech Linda Sarsour, civil rights activist, media commentator and Brooklyn-native, positively affirmed her personal support and thereby Sanders’ support for the marginalized communities which mainstream candidates are consistently silent about.

“He works for the people,” Sarsour began emphatically.

“The pundits, the pollsters, the establishment has already counted you out before you went to the polls,” she said to boos from the audience. “We have a political statement to make in New York City, because New York City stands with labor, we stand with women, we stand with immigrants, and New York City, we stand with Muslims and Black Lives Matter…”

Sarsour stated in just a few, succinct sentences the values that truly make New York City world renowned. It is not Donald Trump’s unbridled, unregulated, ruthless capitalism that has destroyed communities and neighborhoods for the benefit of luxury condos. It is not Hillary Clinton’s self-serving opportunism and race-baiting that defined her two terms as Senator.

New York’s is a foundation of working class and immigrant strength. It is a foundation that allowed both my Queens-native parents—and countless others—to realize dreams unimaginable to their immigrant parents and grandparents.

It is community, it is solidarity.

While the establishment media becomes ever more consumed by an overwhelming establishment bias—i.e. Hillary Clinton—it is my belief that New York will make a political statement on 19 April, as Sarsour intimated.

That said, young New Yorkers have already made such a statement.

They are tired of the corporate media blackout of Bernie. They are tired of CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on and on, refusing to call out Donald Trump on his bullshit and ignoring Sanders’ speeches and rallies and policy positions. They are incensed that the Daily News, a newspaper for the working people of New York historically, has endorsed Hillary Clinton thanks to corporate ties.

And last night, it showed.

The Indypendent, an institution of social movements and real left wing politics since the early 2000s, in conjunction with The Occupied Wall Street Journal, born out of the Occupy Wall Street movement of the late 2000s, crowd-funded a four page broadsheet, special primary edition called The Battle of New York.

The issue eloquently makes the case for Sanders as the nominee: “When Bernie Sanders echoed Occupy Wall Street, called for racial justice and spoke of peace as if it were possible, it means he heard us.

“This is how we meet him back, and speak to each other,” the editors write.

What a success.

Millennial after millennial took their free (always free) copy from myself and others handing them out—instead of falling into the cliche that says millennials are too idealistic, fixated on their cell phone screens while waiting in line to see Bernie Sanders, the cultivator of a revolution—the diverse crowd did one thing. They read.

And to me, this proves that all the condescending talk, all the “wisdom of elders,” realistic politicians and pragmatism have met an end. Not that it won’t continue, but we won’t be listening. We will be fighting for racial justice, and for civil rights. For the rights of South American and South Asian immigrants, for the rights of Muslim Americans. Against a bottomless war machine and an secretive, unchecked drone war. For the right to self determination for all peoples. For a “big tent,” as the pundits like to say.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign is about a lot of things, but one of his lasting legacies will be the reengagement of my generation of voters.

Apathy is tyranny…but neoliberalism is worse.