Bernie Sanders Sends A Message To The Kochs By Drawing 28,000 To Rally

The record breaking crowds are becoming part of the routine for the Bernie Sanders campaign, but it is the message that people are turning out by the tens of thousands to hear that is a warning to oligarchic billionaires like the Koch brothers.

The Sanders campaign announced that new 2016 record crowd came out in Portland, OR:

Shattering a day-old record, 28,000 backers of Bernie Sanders on Sunday filled all the seats and crowded into overflow areas outside the Moda Center sports arena where the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers play.

“Whoa. This is an unbelievable turnout,” Sanders said after he walked onto the stage. Consistently drawing bigger turnouts than any other presidential contender, Sanders told the packed Portland arena, “You’ve done it better than anyone else.” The arena seats were filled and thousands more listened to the speech on loudspeakers outside, according to Michael Lewellen, a Rose Quarter vice president. The total turnout far surpassed the 15,000 in Seattle just 24 hours earlier.

The big and boisterous crowds, Sanders said, are sending a message that it’s time to reverse the four-decade decline of the American middle class and launch a grassroots “political revolution” to take on the billionaire class. “Bringing people together,” Sanders added, is at the core of his campaign.

The Sanders message of a political revolution to take on the billionaires is mobilizing millions into action. Bernie Sanders has been talking about a grassroots revolution to stop the Citizens United enabled Koch brothers for years. His talk has been translated into action as the Senator from Vermont is leading an increasingly powerful movement of ordinary Americans who want their government back.

Bernie Sanders is accomplishing something that every candidate dreams of, but few accomplish. He is building a popular movement that could change the country. Popular grassroots movements sometimes win and take power, but most often their lasting legacy is changing the political discussion by forcing the establishment candidates to adopt their issues and positions.

It is already is happening in 2016 as the Sanders movement has moved Hillary Clinton left on a variety of issues. Bernie Sanders and his supporters can’t defeat the billionaires and the Koch brothers alone. They will need the Democratic Party behind them.

The size of the Sanders crowds is a warning to the Koch brothers that the once considered fringe idea of taking down the billionaires is going mainstream.

The billionaires may have the dollars, but Bernie Sanders is building up the numbers.

On Election Day, dollars don’t vote, but the people who are on a mission to defeat the Koch brothers will.