Galindez writes: "Bernie Sanders has bigger crowds than he had a year ago. He has expanded his message over the past year, but the same core beliefs drive his campaign. I had my doubts about a 'Democratic Socialist' building a winning campaign. He cut into those doubts on day one."



Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders shakes hands during a campaign rally in Waterloo, Iowa, on Sunday. (photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

Bernie Closes Iowa Campaign the Way It Began

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

ernie Sanders has bigger crowds than he had a year ago. He has expanded his message over the past year, but the same core beliefs drive his campaign. I had my doubts about a “Democratic Socialist” building a winning campaign. He cut into those doubts on day one. It was in a bookstore in Iowa City called Prairie Lights. There weren’t more than 50 seats. They needed more than 50 seats. People were standing in places where they couldn’t see Bernie, but they could hear him.

I agreed with everything Bernie said, but I wondered: Can he win? Were the American people ready? That was what Bernie was asking. He wanted to know if enough people were ready to join him in a political revolution. When it came time for the close to his speech, he took aim at all doubt and reminded everyone in the room what great progress we have made. He asked the room what we would think if he had said 20 years ago that there would be an African American president. He asked what we would have called him if, 15 years ago, he had said red states would allow gay marriage.

He had me. I started thinking, why not? We can do anything if we come together. As many of you probably noticed, I stopped covering other candidates and got on the Bernie beat. There was no staff in Iowa then. Bernie was riding around in a Dodge muscle car with two of his long-time staffers, and I could see him winning people over.

Last night, during his close in Des Moines, he returned to that theme of building on what we have already done. It brought me back to that afternoon in Prairie Lights Bookstore when Bernie Sanders made me believe that together we can win and transform this nation into what we know it can be.

During a part of the program when staff explained how a caucus worked, one of the staffers asked the crowd, “Who will be caucusing for the first time?” There were close to 2,000 people in the room, and most of their hands went up. That’s how you build a winning campaign.

Here are some videos from last night showing what this movement has become. We have come along way from Bernie, Phil, and Michael traveling in the borrowed muscle car.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.