Sen. Bernie Sanders uses tax reform to energize Green Bay progressives

GREEN BAY - Sen. Bernie Sanders returned to Wisconsin on Saturday to urge supporters to finish what they helped start when they propelled him to victory in the state's 2016 presidential primary election.

On Saturday, Sanders told an estimated 1,000 people at the Weidner Center for a Repeal the Trump Tax rally that voters in the state helped make his radical, presidential agenda more mainstream. Now, he said it’s up to supporters to get involved in politics to continue the fight.

“If you think politics is not relevant to your lives, man, are you mistaken,” Sanders said. “Get involved. Stand up. Fight back. Think big, with courage, and we can create the kind of nation we know we can become.”

Sanders encouraged the crowd to support incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, and Randy Bryce, the Democrat challenging Republican Rep. Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.

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“If you can beat Paul Ryan, you will send a loud message across this country,” said Sanders, who attended a rally with Bryce earlier on Saturday in Racine.

Brenndan Ridder and Catherine Rogers made a two-and-a-half-hour trip from Madison to Green Bay to show their support for Sanders' push for universal health care, higher corporate tax rates, equality and support for social justice causes.

“He is the most prominent supporter of the working class, those of us working more than 40 hours a week to get by,” Ridder said.

“It’s affecting everyone around us in negative ways,” Rogers said. “We’re starting to feel it. The fear of losing health care is big for both of us. We have immigrant friends on visas.”

Sanders called for finding bipartisan consensus on issues like gun control, environmental protections, affordable higher education, a livable minimum wage, protecting the social safety net and universal health care.

“They try to divide the American people. You have presidents who have been conservative, liberal and progressive. But every president has understood that when you get to the Oval Office, your job is to bring our people together,” Sanders said. “Now, for cheap political reasons, what we’re seeing is a president who is dividing us up, a president who is pushing racism and sexism and xenophobia. … This country has struggled for too long fighting bigotry. We’re not going backward. We’re going forward.”

Green Bay resident Elliott Brabant said he liked Sanders’ call to get involved and find solutions.

“It’s nice that he doesn’t say he can fix our problems, but that we can fix our problems by getting involved,” Brabant said. “People are busy, have kids to care for and have other dreams. The (presidential) election results got us off our butts to fix this.”

Sanders wrapped up a 90-minute rally ostensibly organized around mounting opposition to the tax reform bill Republicans enacted in December. But speakers such as Bounce Milwaukee co-owner Rebecca Cooper-Clancy, Green Bay native and campus organizer Tasha Gjesdahl, and nurse practitioner Amy Pease highlighted the broader economic, medical and educational challenges faced by working-class Americans.

“My Mom, like many single moms, was in and out of house working multiple jobs so my three older sisters and I had everything we needed. I wish my mom hadn’t had to push herself so hard just to get us by,” Gjesdahl said. “... If our generation wants to see progress on issues we care about, we need to show up in our democracy.”