{"id":12013,"date":"2016-05-11T23:18:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T05:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=12013"},"modified":"2016-05-12T07:51:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T13:51:33","slug":"sanders-brings-message-to-rallies-in-billings-missoula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/sanders-brings-message-to-rallies-in-billings-missoula\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders brings message to rallies in Billings, Missoula"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-12013\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"12013-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-crowd-1-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-crowd-1-2-771x500.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of several thousand Wednesday night in the Montana Pavilion at MetraPark.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-camera-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-camera-1-771x495.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A rally-goer takes a photo of Satsang, a Billings band that warmed up the crowd before Sanders' speech.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-young-couple-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-young-couple-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Christopher Ahner, left, and Madison Parrish drove down from Helena to be first in line at the Montana Pavilion. He is 18, she is 20. This is the first presidential race either of them will vote in.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-candi-again-1-771x510.jpg*771*510\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-candi-again-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Sanders was introduced by Kari Boiter, a Democrat running for the state House  in District 44, in Billings Heights.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-ext-crowd-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-ext-crowd-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>There were long lines of people waiting to get in the entrance on the east end of the Montana Pavilion.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-crowd-1-copy-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-crowd-1-copy.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The line of people waiting to get in wrapped around the front of the building, too.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-Drew2-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-Drew2-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Satsang band leader Drew McManus sings a song before Sanders' appearance.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide8\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-on-TV-1-771x464.jpg*771*464\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-on-TV-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A couple of locals are interviewed by a visiting reporter.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"12013-slide9\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-pot-camper-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-pot-camper-1-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>In the parking lot of  MetraPark, people in an RV were collecting signatures in support of CI-115, which would legalize recreational marijuana use for adults. <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 12013, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/sanders-brings-message-to-rallies-in-billings-missoula\/', 9 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took his message to Montana on Wednesday, appearing at large rallies in Missoula and Billings.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands turned out at each rally, with long lines stretching outside the Montana Pavilion in MetraPark for hours before the speech began.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>With no seats in the Pavilion, those hoping to \u201cfeel the Bern\u201d had to stand to hear his speech. Even at that, and with a speech that began 15 minutes late\u2014sort of a slow Bern\u2014 the Billings audience responded enthusiastically to his call for a political revolution in America.<\/p>\n<p>They shouted \u201cWe want Bernie\u201d and \u201cWe are the 99 percent\u201d as they waited for the speech to begin and interrupted it repeatedly with cheers and applause. When Sanders reeled off a list of problems in America that he deemed \u201cnot acceptable,\u201d the crowd chanted in unison, \u201cNot acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Much of Sanders\u2019 support has come from young people, and they turned out in huge numbers Wednesday, along with some older citizens and families carrying armloads of kids. When Sanders asked who in the crowd owed student debt, hands went up all over Montana Pavilion.<\/p>\n<p>Many wore Bernie Sanders clothing or carried posters, and there was even a pair of Bernie Sanders underwear. A couple of high school students, one from Joliet and one from Billings Central Catholic High School, showed up in support of Republican candidate Donald Trump, wearing red \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d caps. A second Joliet student wore a \u201cMake Skiing Great Again\u201d cap.<\/p>\n<p>Given the general level of noise and excitement, even while dozens of people were taking photos of Sanders with their phones, it was hard to tell which of his lines drew the greatest applause. But the audience cheered especially loud when he called the war on Iraq a mistake and when he called for free tuition for college students.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cWe should not be punishing people for getting an education,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should be rewarding them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said that young people also tell him they are worried that without changes in the economy they will become the first generation in American history to have a lower standard of living than their parents. That threatens the American dream, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we do not change the economy,\u201d he said, \u201cthat dream will die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also laid out other parts of his campaign platform: raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, reforming campaign finance, passing comprehensive immigration reform, dealing with climate change, providing healthcare for all Americans, placing a \u201cspeculation tax\u201d on Wall Street companies and switching from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that he had met before the speech with elders from Montana Indian tribes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a debt we owe the Native American people that we can never fully repay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He called his campaign an effort to achieve economic, social, racial and environmental justice. But he repeatedly emphasized that his campaign is not just platform of campaign planks but a call for revolutionary changes in American politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are doing something very unusual in contemporary politics,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are telling the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12023\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-12023 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-closeup2-1-336x203.jpg\" alt=\"BS\" width=\"336\" height=\"203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-closeup2-1-336x203.jpg 336w, https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-closeup2-1-768x463.jpg 768w, https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bernie-closeup2-1.jpg 771w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sanders makes a point.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He compared his campaign to historic American movements to build unions, end slavery, give women the right to vote and allow gay people to marry each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody at the top ever gives you what you need,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to stand up and fight for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said little about his political opponents in Billings, other than to say that he and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton disagree about many issues but both agree that electing Trump would be a disaster.<\/p>\n<p>In Missoula, he said, \u201cDonald Trump will not become president of the United States.\u201d He noted that he leads Trump in national polls by greater margins than Clinton does.<\/p>\n<p>He also complained in Billings about Democrats\u2019 super delegate system, which allows some delegates to vote at the nominating convention for whomever they choose, regardless of primary results. Clinton, he said, had commitments from 450 delegates before any other candidates even entered the race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is not democracy,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cThat is the establishment defending its own interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He won his 19th state in the presidential race by taking West Virginia this week, and he said he still has a chance to win the race, even though he acknowledged that it is a \u201csteep climb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He urged Montanans to help make that happen by turning out in record numbers in the June 7 primary here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere in Billings, and here in Montana and across the country \u2026 people want real change. People want a political revolution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He also used the speech to flesh out over some 70 minutes the arguments he has made in sound bites during televised debates. For example, he criticized America\u2019s wealthiest family, the Wal-Mart-owning Walton family, for paying employees so little that many qualify for food stamps and Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say to the Walton family, get off welfare and pay workers a living wage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said that some people in Montana can\u2019t afford to fill doctors\u2019 prescriptions because of lack of access to healthcare and that some seniors have to cut their prescribed pills in half to save money.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, he said, America has the most expensive healthcare in the world.<\/p>\n<p>He said that America now has the greatest income inequality since 1928 and that Americans work longer hours than in any other industrialized country. Women make only 79 cents for each dollar that men earn, he said, and America has lost 60,000 factories and millions of jobs this century.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have got to open the doors of the Democratic Party to working people and young people, to their ideas and energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said he realized that parts of his message would be unwelcome among Montanans who depend on coal for a living, but he said it was more important to send the same message everywhere. He also called for $41 billion in new spending to help those damaged by the transformation to a sustainable energy possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope this beautiful state will help lead this nation into a political revolution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Introductory speeches were given by Brian Maier, Jennifer Merecki and Kari Boiter, a Democratic candidate in House District 44.<\/p>\n<p>Boiter called for prison reforms, equal pay for women and an end to corporate greed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot afford to sit on the sidelines when there\u2019s a champion like Bernie Sanders in the race,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Merecki introduced the theme of political revolution that dominated the evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRevolutions have never been easy,\u201d she said, \u201cso why should this one by any different?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took his message to Montana on Wednesday, appearing at large rallies in Missoula and Billings. Thousands turned out at each rally, with long lines stretching outside the Montana Pavilion in MetraPark for hours before the speech began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3857,4339,183],"class_list":["post-12013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-kari-boiter","tag-metrapark","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}