Can he go so far as to provoke a revolution across the Atlantic? Bernie Sanders is drawing crowds to New York days before the April 19 primary, which could be decisive in the race for the Democratic nomination. At Washington Square Park Wednesday evening, 27,000 people came to listen to it. It is more than Barack Obama in 2007. At other meetings, tens of thousands of aficionados drink the words of Sanders, tired by a democracy which they consider held hostage. The “democratic socialist” has just won seven of the last eight caucuses. To see the passion with which many students and the elderly defend the candidacy of the senator from Vermont for the presidential election in November, no one would dare to qualify it “anecdotal”. A social movement has been set in motion.
Bernie Sanders, 74, puts his finger on the problems that undermine American democracy: the omnipresence of money, the disproportionate influence of Wall Street, the explosion of social inequalities. Unlike his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, 68, whom he considers to be under the control of Wall Street, he calls for the “too big to fail” banks to be dismantled. It has just had unexpected support from the Federal Reserve which said Wednesday that five of the eight largest banks in the country have not taken sufficient measures to avoid any systemic risk. For Michel, a Frenchman from Toulon who has lived in New York for years, it is a fact: “Bernie Sanders is the political expression of a social movement like Occupy Wall Street.” Its campaign team has a remarkable organization on the ground. Emails inviting to knock on doors in several districts of New York, personalized text messages: one would believe reliving the election campaign of Barack Obama in 2008.
Thursday evening, during a televised debate organized in the old Brooklyn shipyards, the “Brooklynite” Sanders, who has always made a point of honor to lead a positive election campaign, lost his calm in the face of a Hillary Clinton who he is never stingy with virulent remarks against him. Referring to the “Crime Bill” of 1994, a law passed under Bill Clinton to fight the explosion of crime in American cities, which had resulted in the mass incarceration of petty delinquents, the Democratic senator let himself go. , believing that as First Lady, Hillary Clinton had defended the law and “used a racist term” when speaking of “super-predators” about young black criminals. Bernie Sanders had also approved the law, but for “other reasons”. His diatribe will not change the situation: the African-American electorate will vote overwhelmingly for the Democrat. The tone of the senator’s campaign, however, is upsetting even some of his supporters. Wednesday in Washington Square Park, Paul Song, a member of the team crossed what some believe to be a red line: the creation of universal medical coverage will never be possible “if we continue to elect democratic whores subservient to Wall Street ”. The senator from Vermont had to quickly distance himself from such comments on Twitter.
The campaign for the Democratic nomination may not yet have peaked in the 2008 primaries between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but it is getting nastier. In a newspaper printed specifically for Tuesday’s primary titled “The Battle of New York,” Hillary Clinton takes it for her rank. The newspaper castigates the proximity between the former Secretary of State and Henry Kissinger, whose record at the head of American diplomacy is portrayed in devastating terms. Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist who contributed to the publication of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s documents, also took up the pen. He puts it bluntly: “A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for Donald Trump.” His argument: emblematic incarnation of the establishment, the latter cannot beat the billionaire whose success comes precisely from his condemnation of the establishment. Black intellectual Cornell West is rave about Bernie Sanders, who others call a gentle idealist: “It’s time to listen to his prophetic voice.”
The Sanders movement is not going to stop in New York. But to believe the polls, the victory next Tuesday seems promised to the former secretary of state. 291 delegates and 44 super-delegates are at stake in terms of the 2383 that must be obtained to be chosen as an official candidate.
–
