
I just got back from a two-hour public policy forum in Arlington, Virginia, entitled “Rebooting Our Policy Agenda to Reclaim the American Dream,” and featuring Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA8) as special guest speakers from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). The room was at capacity ( 300 people? 500 people according to the Washington Post), with enthusiastic Bernie Sanders supporters (and others) arriving an hour or more early to make sure they got a good seat. Rep. Beyer gave an excellent speech whose theme was thesis/antithesis/synthesis – are we making progress in America? Then, Sen. Sanders gave a 1/2 hour or so stemwinder which had the crowd fired up, sometimes on their feet cheering him on. Finally, there were questions and answers for the last 45 minutes or so, topics ranging from international trade (the progressive crowd was much more with Sanders than with Beyer on this one) to guns (Sanders took some tough questioning from a gun safety mom regarding some of his votes, and his general attitude towards guns) to campaign finance reform, Citizens United, health care, and much more. I’m going to upload the videos in the order they are available on YouTube, then possibly reorganize them later. With that…enjoy! 🙂