Bernie Sanders Offers Bevy of Ideas to Utahns on Eve of Super Tuesday Rhett Wilkinson Follow Mar 2 · 7 min read

Bernie Sanders thinks skiing is as good in Utah as it is in his home state of Vermont.

Almost.

But besides introducing his wife, that’s all Sanders would say about anything that wasn’t policy in his rally Monday in Utah, at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City.

Sanders, an independent senator, is seeking the Democratic nomination for the United States presidency and was in the Beehive State, which Sanders called one of the most beautiful states in America, on the eve of Super Tuesday, when Utah’s delegates are up for grabs.

Sanders called the policies “serious business,” policies that included “Medicare for all”; “a climate change proposal based upon the principles of the Green New Deal”; the federal minimum wage being made $15 per hour; youth to be educated rather than incarcerated; an end to cash bail; not nominating judges if Sanders is president that aren’t fully in favor of Roe v. Wade; and many more.

Sanders called conservative senators who give speeches about “getting government off (Americans’) backs” “hypocrites” because they want to use the government to restrict abortions.

Sen. Bernie Sanders held a rally in Utah the day before Super Tuesday. (photo credit: Michelle Poe/KUTV)

Sanders’ speech

Sanders started his talk about policy by saying that Donald Trump had to be replaced as president of the U.S. Sanders called Trump “the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.”

“I’ve heard that Utah is one of the most conservative (states),” Sanders said. “Whether you are conservative, progressive or (another political ideology), you understand that you cannot have somebody who is a pathological liar. And I think there are a lot of conservatives who understand that. You cannot have somebody who is running a corrupt administration … you cannot have somebody who apparently has never read the Constitution of the United States, who is undermining American democracy and thinks he is above the law.”

“In November, we are going to remind Donald Trump what democracy is about because we are going to throw him out of office,” Sanders said, to cheers.

Trump isn’t just a liar; he is a “fraud,” Sanders said, saying that Trump claimed that all Americans would get health care but instead tried to “throw” 32 million Americans off health care; that Trump said he would not cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security but his budget is looking to do those things; that Trump says Americans are supposed to hate the undocumented in the country but as a businessman, hired and “exploit(ed) them with low wages”; that Trump said that Americans should be opposed to the outsourcing of low-wage jobs but established factories in various countries, including Mexico, Bangladesh and Turkey.

“We are going to defeat Trump because while Trump is trying to divide people up” in religion, sexual orientation and other ways, Sanders has an agenda that works for all, “not just the 1 percent,” he said.

Sanders also said “the establishment” is getting “very, very nervous,” saying that a lobbyist for the military-industrial complex is concerned that a Sanders administration will stop “endless wars.”

Sanders called a Super-PAC “a manifestation of the corruption of our political system.”

“And I’m proud to tell you, we don’t have a Super-PAC; we don’t want a Super-PAC; we don’t need a Super-PAC because our campaign contributions come from working families, not Wall Street.”

All over the country, folks are seeing “ugly” TV and digital ads from a group called The Big Tent. It’s a Super-PAC, Sanders said, and they are spending some $4 million in a two-day period, as Sanders understands, to beat Sanders’ campaign. Sanders is leading in the Democratic delegate count.

While Sanders couldn’t tell the crowd who is funding The Big Tent because CEOs and billionaires can spend as must as they want without making disclosures, Sanders bets that they are coming from drug companies, Wall Street and other entities, Sanders said.

“They know our administration will stand up to the corporate elite; we’re going to stand up to Wall Street,” Sanders said, also saying that his administration would stand up to the fossil fuel industry and “prison industrial complex.”

“When the establishment sees so many people coming to rallies … they get very nervous,” Sanders said. “They know that people are coming together for a government and economy that works for all; not just the few.”

“The working people” are “sick and tired” of working for starvation wages across the U.S., Sanders said.

“People can’t make it on $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage,” Sanders said. “And that’s why we are going to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. … It’s why we are going to make it easier for workers to join unions.”

“It is why we are going to tell the wealthiest people in the country … they will start paying their fair share in taxes,” Sanders said.

Education needs to be put at the top of the list when it comes to issues impacting the middle class, besides high-quality universal affordable child care, Sanders said.

“We believe that every kid in this country, regardless of the ZIP code in where they live, deserves a quality education,” Sanders said. “That is why we are going to trickle funding for Title I schools.”

Because Sanders believes in education, he believes in teachers he said, expressing hope that young people at the rally go into teaching.

Sanders said he will raise the salaries for American teachers to $60,000 per year, with the concept of public education expanded beyond K-12.

Sanders said that Trump gave a $1 trillion tax break for large corporations — “Amazon didn’t pay a nickel in federal taxes,” Sanders said.

“If Trump can give tax breaks to them, we can cancel all student debt in America,” Sanders said.

Sanders has felt his entire life that health care is a “human right,” not a privilege.

Sanders said that the U.S. is spending twice as much as any other country for health care, at $11,000 for every “man, woman and child.” Yet, 87 million Americans are insured or underinsured. Further, 30,000 people die because they do not go to a doctor and 500,000 people went bankrupt because of medical bills, Sanders said.

“That really is cruel; that really is outrageous,” Sanders said. “And together, we end that.”

Sanders said that he is looking for Medicare for all to cover dental care, hearing adds, glasses, and “most important,” home health care.

Talk over universal health care, which has been going since the era of Teddy Roosevelt in the early 1900s, should be over, with implementation in its place, Sanders said.

“We will take on the health care industry and pass a Medicare for all, single-payer program,” Sanders said.

“Donald Trump, that great and brilliant scientist, after reading journal after journal, after turning off Fox TV and studying the issue, he has concluded that climate change is a hoax,” Sanders joked. “Well, we think Donald Trump is a hoax.”

“Our administration will believe in science,” Sanders said with repeated chants of “Bernie! Bernie!” following.

When you listen to the scientists, they will tell you about “devastating problems” of ice caps melting, oceans rising and increasing drought, and the United Nations has said there will be hundreds of climate refugees, with no land to grow their crops, Sanders said.

Sanders also proposed investing in the young people of the U.S. to be educated rather than incarcerated.

“It takes less money to send them to college than to lock them up,” Sanders said.

Right now in the U.S., 400,000 folks are in jail who have not been convicted of anything. They were arrested and charged, but may not be guilty. They cannot afford to pay to get out of jail.

“That is why we are going to end cash bail in America,” Sanders said. “We do not believe that private corporations should make large profits by locking up fellow Americans. And that is why we are going to end private prisons and detention centers.”

Citing a “war on drugs” in the country, Sanders said he would use executive order to legalize medical marijuana in every state.

Sanders, the son of an immigrant, also cited a broken immigration system and decried the gun violence in America.

“Our administration will bring about the most sweeping gun safety legislation in the history of this country,” Sanders said, saying that it would “do what the American people want, not what the NRA wants.”

“We’re going to pass universal background checks; we are going to end the gun show loophole; we’re going to end the sale and distribution of assault weapons on this country.”

Sanders gave a relatively lengthy conclusion to his speech, wherein he said that “it is wrong that we gave tax breaks to billionaires when half a million people sleep on the streets” and half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

It’s not just about defeating Trump, but changing a system, Sanders said.

A new system would reflect “that as human beings and Americans, we are in this together … that any president … cannot do it alone.”

“Real change” “has never taken place from the top on down, but always from the bottom on up,” Sanders said, citing the labor movement where workers organized and told their employers they are human beings and not “beasts of burden,” forming unions and engaging in collective bargaining. He also cited the civil rights movement, saying it wasn’t just the leadership of Martin Luther King but the African-American community and its white allies. Sanders also mentioned the women’s, gay rights and sunrise movements.

Sanders’ movement would involve many demographics, including blacks, Latinos and gay and straight folks coming together.

“It is a movement that says “yes, we are going to take on the greed of Wall Street. Yes, we are going to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry … yes, we are going to take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry … yes, we are going to take on the green of the military-industrial complex … yes, we are going to take on the prison industrial complex … yes, we are going to take on the 1 percent.”

The movement would see people create a government and economy that “works for all,” Sanders said.

“Let’s vote; let’s win here in Utah … let us defeat Trump … and let us transform this country,” Sanders said, to more recurring chants of “Bernie! Bernie!”