“If there has ever been a time in the modern history of our country to stand up and fight back, now is that time.”
Great point, senator, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
A week ago, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came to Iowa City’s Englert Theater on his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour, where he is traveling around the Midwest to speak on the current political state of our nation.
On the Iowa City stop, Sanders rallied an audience of around 800 people, with thousands more walking around downtown Iowa City, hoping to hear him. He was able to address the overflow crowd outside of Bread Garden shortly following his Englert speech.
I was proud of the Iowa City community for showing up in support of the senator, who has always been a politician who truly works toward improving the lives of citizens by protecting our rights and our freedoms as Americans.
The present threat of oligarchy that’s developing in our country was the main topic of the senator’s speech; he mentioned how Trump’s inauguration foreshadowed how the next four years would go, with the top one percent standing with him in support.
He told the audience about the disparity of wealth division in America, where the majority of the new wealth being created goes straight into billionaires’ pockets. Working families are struggling and living paycheck to paycheck, while the rich keep getting richer.
Bernie’s tour is a call to action for Midwest voters. Democratic voter turnout was down heavily in last year’s election compared to in 2020, and Sanders blames it on the politicians: “You can’t create a strong voter turnout unless you have something that excites people.”
But why did he choose Iowa City?
I asked Kushi Maridu, a University of Iowa second-year student who was at the Englert to hear Sanders speak.
“I think he had two main reasons to choose Iowa city. One is the strong progressive student presence. This was shown through the election as Johnson County voted blue. Another reason is the looming threat of cutting federal funding for research and more,” Maridu said.
“As an R1 research institute, not only does this mean the halt of moving forward in science, it comes with a massive amount of people who were depending on this research to lose their jobs and, in a worst case scenario, go back to their home country,” Maridu continued.
Hadley Forsen-Yepes, a first-year UI student, was a member of the overflow crowd who heard Bernie speak at Bread Garden shortly after his speech at the Englert. I asked for her thoughts on why the Vermont senator came to our college town.
“I think that Bernie Sanders came to Iowa City because it is a hub of young, blue voters in the midst of a red state — even more blue than Des Moines,” Forsen-Yepesn said. “ I call myself lucky to live in a city where opportunities like this arise.”
“Sanders visited my hometown of Omaha, the ‘blue dot’ of Nebraska, the night before he visited IC,” Forsen-Yepes continued. “Also, his Chief of Staff Misty Rebik is a University of Iowa alum who told the overflow crowd that she urged Bernie to visit the city. She has been heavily involved in Iowa and Iowa City politics for years and surely understands the importance of reaching the state’s voters.”
Sanders also came to Iowa City specifically to try and rally the community to get more involved in politics following Christina Bohannan’s loss against Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks by only a thousand votes.
It was disheartening to see that Bohannan lost by such a small margin, especially because Johnson and Scott County have historically always voted blue, and they have the largest populations of any county in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District.
Analysts say Iowa City will be part of a competitive district in 2026, so it’s important to keep voters in this area informed and aware of what our congressmen and women stand for.
Sanders urged the audience to pressure Miller-Meeks into holding a town hall meeting where community members can voice their concerns. We as citizens need to remember our politicians should work toward making our state and counties better, and for them to do that, we have to make our voices heard.
Miller-Meeks also pleaded for us to call her and ask her to vote no on legislation that will defund essential programs to provide tax breaks for the one percent. If enough voters call in and bring up this issue, Miller-Meeks will realize she has no choice but to vote in the majority interest of the people.
Sanders brought up the idea that politicians and government employees work for us — not the other way around. This is a serious sentiment to remember as more and more politicians, including President Trump, work toward implementing legislation that fulfills their interests.
“If we stand together, we win,” he said, as a part of his closing remarks, “because at the end of the day, I’m not a Ph.D. in math, but I do know that 29 percent is a hell of a lot larger number than one percent.”
Sanders promised to continue being involved in the political issues in Iowa and the Midwest even after his tour concludes. During these unparalleled times, it’s comforting to know that at least one politician has the people’s interests in mind.