When Bernie Sanders spoke at the American Federation of Teachers conference Sunday morning, it wasn’t so much a matter of “feeling the Bern” but an emotion distilled almost two years after the 2016 presidential election.
“I saw him before, when he was campaigning, and his demeanor then was all seriousness, always to the point, to reality,” said AFT delegate Malena Wirth, a paraprofessional from Oregon. “What I noticed this time was even more so … he was angry. Just as we are.”
The Independent U.S. senator from Vermont had the crowd cheering his rhetoric, while booing a couple of times with mentions of President Donald Trump and the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision that banned unions from collecting fees from nonmembers in the public sector.
It was Day Three of the conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Previous speakers included Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and secretary of state (Friday) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., (Saturday). On Sunday, Mr. Sanders kept the emotional high going.
In 23 minutes, he touched on some familiar topics, among them a push for Medicare for all in a single-payer system, concerns that past social ills such as racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia are threatening to cripple America, and economic inequalities emphasized by policies benefiting the richest 1 percent.
He also had much to say about the current administration.
“Today we have a president, who, in an unprecedented way, [is] motivated by greed and power,” Mr. Sanders said. “He is also a pathological liar and I know, every day, you tell your students, ‘Tell the truth.’
“You say to your kids, ‘Don’t be bullies.’ And what kind of terrible example is he setting for the children of this country?”
Mr. Trump, he added, “is also a president who has betrayed the people who voted for him. During his campaign, Trump told the American people he was going to protect the working families of this country. He lied.”
Mr. Sanders, however, said he is “not a pessimist” and, in fact, is heartened by a wave of everyday citizens who are becoming politically active. This includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic Socialist of America party member who recently upset incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th Congressional District race.
“All over this country, people are standing up and fighting back, not just against Donald Trump but more importantly for a progressive agenda that creates a government that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.”
“Giving tax breaks to billionaires, spending unlimited sums on the military and telling us we do not have enough money for education [are] not the priorities that the people of this country want to see,” Mr. Sanders said.
Later, he said Congress has “ceased to be an independent branch of government. Instead, it has become a willful and obedient puppy dog for the president, largely ignoring his attacks on democracy, his attack on the media, his attack on the judiciary,his attacks on federal law enforcement agencies, and his dangerous movement toward authoritarianism.”
If there were many in the crowd who dissented from Mr. Sanders’ opinions, they weren’t particularly vocal.
“I would argue he was making an argument for the renewal of the social contract between the people and their government by investing in public education and in the basic necessity that all people are entitled to, through health care, education and the right to aspire to a good life,” said Saul Straussman, head of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers’ political action committee.
Mr. Straussman, who teaches social studies at Taylor Allderdice High School, said the senator “hit all the notes he’s been hitting this whole campaign: about the need to invest in public education, the responsibility of government to its citizens and the importance of labor within that whole arrangement.”
Mr. Sanders shared the morning spotlight with two others facing political challenges come fall: U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, and Wisconsin Democrat Randy Bryce, who is running for his party’s nomination to replace House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican.
Correction, posted July 15, 2018: In an earlier version of this story, Conor Lamb’s elected status was misstated.
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or @MariaSciulloPG.
First Published: July 15, 2018, 8:12 p.m.
