Crowds of 20,000 people filled the football stadium of Catalina High School Saturday afternoon to rally with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, joined by Rep. Greg Casar, are traveling across the country in their rally campaign, Fight Oligarchy, to encourage resistance against billionaires and corporate groups within the new federal administration who hold great political power and influence.
Both leaders took a moment to recount their memories of Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died of cancer on March 13.
“[Grijalva] had the guts to come out and endorse me and take on the whole Democratic establishment. We will never forget Raul Grijalva and his dedication to working families,” Sanders said.
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders criticized the new administration’s intentions to slash programs such as Medicaid and Social Security in an effort to expand the wealth of recent government-appointed billionaires like Elon Musk.
Ocasio-Cortez said Trump is leading with the Darwinist idea of “every man for himself” and now that he is back in power he has “handed the keys of the government to Elon Musk and is selling the country for parts to the richest people on the planet for a kickback.”
“I think that in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, if a person gets sick they shouldn’t go bankrupt. I believe that a minimum wage should cover the minimum cost to live — common sense. And Tucson, I believe that homes are not slot machines for investors and big banks to extort working families out of every last dollar that they have,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“I don’t care if you’re a conservative Republican or a progressive. Does anybody think it makes sense that we have a campaign finance system where one man, Musk, can put $270 million to get Trump elected, and then his reward is that he becomes the most powerful person in government? That is not democracy, that is oligarchy,” Sanders said.
Both politicians noted how big money in politics transcends party lines.
“But it’s not just Republicans. You got billionaire Democrats who are telling candidates ‘Don’t stand up for the working class.’ So we’ve got a corrupt campaign finance system,” Sanders said.
The speakers reinforced the idea of unity as the key to overcoming these challenges, assuring that all is not lost.
“They got all the money in the world, they got the power, they got the media, but you know what we have that they don’t? We got 20,000 people here in Tucson and we got hundreds of millions of people all across this country. So brothers and sisters, don’t let them. Don’t let them divide us up by the color of our skin, where we were born, our religion, or our sexual orientation. Let’s stand together as one people, proud people. Let’s take on Trumpism and defeat it and let’s create the kind of America that you and I know we can become.”
“I hope you see that this movement is not about partisan labels, but it is about class solidarity. It is about the thousands of you who came out today to stand together and say our lives deserve dignity and our work deserves respect. No matter who we are or where we come from, we are here today to make a sacred promise to each other […]. Our goal today is to commit to building the kind of country we all deserve,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The rally’s message is to call to restore democracy, returning to core principles—a government of the people, by the people, for the people as enshrined in the Constitution. As Sanders stated, “We don’t want a king in the United States, we overthrew a king. We want a vibrant democracy, not all power resting in the hands of one person.”
Members of the crowd shared their experiences and reasons for attendance.
Sasse Hemstreet, a University of Arizona graduate and Tucson teacher, spoke about working-class struggles.
“This capitalistic system that we have is just no longer working for people that are in the working class anymore. We can’t catch up, can’t pay for things, can’t afford. And yet we have people like Elon Musk that are changing everything. My husband is a federal worker and we are quite frankly, very frightened because of the oligarchy that’s established on Capitol Hill, and that’s why I’m here today,” Hemstreet said.
When discussing President Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, Hemstreet expresses deep concern, stating, “I’m so worried about the Department of Education. They’re cutting jobs and they’re not necessarily getting rid of the funding for next school year, but we have communities here in Tucson that rely on Title One funding. We cater to special needs students, and the Department of Education disperses funds for these students through IDEA,” Hemstreet said. “But I’m really worried because if there’s no workers to collect data, to determine which schools need funding and how much funding, that’s going to impact the education system as a whole, and as we can clearly see, it’s not doing too great. Our test scores aren’t great, and it’s only gonna get worse if we keep moving in the direction.”
Another area of distress for many is the Trump Administration’s plans to slash Medicaid Funding as another rallier, Cynthia Gonzalez, said “I live off social security, I have Medicare and I work with disabled adults. So I would lose everything. And I want to fight.”
The ralliers shared their concerns of the extreme power the billionaires held in government as a crowd member Bryan Sanders said, “This is not normal. This is not appropriate, this is not democracy, this is not America and to say in one real loud voice, we will not have a king in this country.”
Oscasio-Cortez touched on the importance of strengthening the community to continue the fight for democracy. “Beyond elections, our task is to build community. Block associations, neighborhood groups, volunteer groups, church organizations, PTAs. Community is the tissue and the infrastructure for us to win union drives, standing with our farm workers. Standing together is how we win because community is the most powerful building block. We have to defeat authoritarianism and root out corruption,” Oscasio-Cortez said.
