Alex Serrano

CNMS Major

When I heard that my main man, Bernie Sanders, was coming to town, I dropped everything, emailed my professors for the next day, telling them I would be understandably absent, and set my alarm clock for a grim five forty-five. Come Wednesday, I got to the State Theater around ten-thirty to find Bernie supporters already lined up almost two blocks down the sidewalk. Finding some friends hidden within the fray, I looked around and saw a bridge of generations; Here be the idealistic college students, leftover hippies aged like fine wine, and proactive high schoolers just looking for a good time. It was an extraordinarily inspiring event.

With a groovy, soulful, cobbled-together local band opening and with Vermonter and Phish drummer Jon Fishman giving an introduction speech for Sanders, the atmosphere came to an exclamatory peak when Bernie Sanders himself entered the room. With his Brooklyn accent and grandpa-esque stylings, Bernie preached the good word of Democratic Socialism, stressing his FDR New Deal focus on revamping infrastructure, creating jobs where there once were none.

That night, at a meeting held by the Maine People’s Alliance (MPA), four members and I snatched up top hats, monocles, and signs with drippingly sarcastic slogans like “Billionaires for LePage” and “Cut Schools, Give Billionaires Tax Breaks” to wear in protest of the Donald Trump rally at the Westin Hotel.  I got there around eight forty-five to find not even half a block of sidewalk of Trump supporters.

Soon the protesters, wielding signs like swords and empowered speeches like shields, came en masse to attack Trump’s bigoted and holey agenda. I engaged in various aggressive discussions with several avid Trump supporters. Most attacked Bernie Sanders’ socialist agenda, likening him to Stalin. What really hit me is how diverse the Trump’s constituents were. Some young, some old, a few in the racial minority.

These interactions led me to a sobering revelation. The fact of the matter is, at this point in our political history, radicalism is the norm. Bernie is at one end, Trump at the other, and everybody else is scrambling to gain traction in this slippery and hyperbolized world. Even with all the enthusiastic and well-meaning protestation we put into those three hours, in my heart I know that nary a soul was swayed that day.

Everyone’s waiting for a system-shattering revolution of Les Mis proportions, but without a powerful grassroots campaign of social activism, we can never rise to the occasion. So I implore every able-bodied citizen to caucus, vote, elect and empower a candidate who speaks to everybody, not only the billionaire 1% holding America in a vice.