Sanders, O’Malley head to MontCo
Clinton’s former opponents back her at delegation breakfast
While many were focused on the Center City goings on around the Democratic National Convention, Montgomery County got to “Feel the Bern” Thursday morning.
Senator Bernie Sanders gave the keynote speech at a joint delegation breakfast hosted by the Hawaiian group at the DoubleTree at Valley Forge, that also heard from former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and current Hawaiian Governor David Ige. Sanders spoke to a group where his delegates greatly outnumbered Clinton delegates.
“They put you a long way from Philadelphia,” Sanders joked to the delegates. “Probably because you voted for Bernie Sanders.”
Sanders spoke onmany of his signature issues, including raising the minimum wage, bolstering a disappearing middle class, wage stagnation and defeating the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.
“What this campaign has been about, making it different from other campaigns, is taking a hard and honest look, sometimes a painful look, at where we are in the country,” Sanders said.
While many Sanders delegates at the convention were disappointed, angry and protesting that their candidate did not get the nomination, Sanders urged them to continue fighting for the ideals he put forward in his campaign, saying that his supporters helped create the “strongest platform in the history of the Democratic Party.”
“All you know the cost of history and that real change and that real change, profound change, never takes place overnight,” Sanders said. “Real change does not happen in one day or in one year. It happens only from the bottom on up.”
While Sanders endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he did not mention her until nearly the end of his 20minute speech, spending more time denouncing Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“In the next few months, we have a very important test, and that test it tomake sure this country does not elect the worst presidential candidate in themodern his- tory of this country,” Sander said. “My fear about Donald Trump is that he is a demagogue who does not believe in the constitution of the United States who is making the cornerstone of his campaign bigotry and hatred.”
The Hawaiian delegation, accompanied for this breakfast by delegates from Utah, West Virginia, Idaho, North and South Dakota, were cheerfully awaiting the speakers Thursday morning. The crowd joined in singing “This Land Is Your Land” and “Accentuate the Positive,” and cheered a delegate who sang a Hawaiian psalm.
Governor Ige spoke proudly about his state, and about sharing the Aloha spirit which the delegations his groupwas hosting at the breakfast.
“In Hawaii we learned a
long time ago that as a community of minorities, that when we work together as minorities, we can achieve great things,” Ige said.
After his speech, Ige said he was enjoying his first trip to Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
“I think it’s terrific. I’ve had a little bit of free time so we went for a walk through Valley Forge and I’ve seen a lot of the surrounding community,” Ige said. “In the city I went to visit the Lib- erty Bell and Independence Hall, and see that history.”
Governor O’Malley joked that Montgomery County was a bit out of theway coming fromthe hotbed of activity surrounding the convention in Center City and South Philadelphia.
“It took me longer to get out there this morning that it took George Washington to get here on horseback,” he said.
Other than the dig at local traffic patterns, O’Malley served as more of an upbeat hypeman leading into Sanders’ speech. He spoke of the progress made in America in technology, quality of life and equality.
“To think that in our lifetimes, you and I have witnessed in just a short period of eight years, we will be able to tell our grandchildren—some of us already do—that we witnessed the election of the first African American president of the United States and the first woman president,” O’Malley said. “Howluckywe are to be alive right now.”