DES MOINES — In the Iowa caucus, one Democratic presidential candidate is making an appeal to liberals’ heads, the other their hearts.
While Hillary Clinton promises to conserve the gains progressives have made under the Obama administration, Bernie Sanders is promising something more.
“It sounds like you want a political revolution!” the hoarse-sounding Vermont senator bellowed to open his speech at his final caucus eve rally in a packed college gymnasium. The crowd size was later estimated at 1,500 people.
After a playlist that stretched from Simon and Garkfunkel to Bob Marley, a series of warm-up speakers played liberalism’s greatest hits. One recounted volunteering for George McGovern at age 9. “George McGovern was a good man, but the timing wasn’t right. … The timing is right now!”
Another recalled campaigning in Iowa with the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone. Wellstone had back problems and was laying stretched out in a van, barely able to move. But when the van stopped and it was time to interact with voters, Wellstone popped up and said, “Let’s go make democracy a verb!”
Clinton makes a convincing political argument that the passage of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, was difficult enough without revisiting that debate in attempt to create a single-payer system. But just as Obamacare opponents found at the time, the stories of people denied healthcare or put under financial strain by illness are also compelling.
A singer for the rock group Foster the People recalled the suffering of his godmother and the heavy burden her husband faced paying for her healthcare. He said it was time to “provide healthcare to everybody. Greed is the only reason that hasn’t changed.”
Mark Foster described Sanders as “authentic, telling the truth.” “He had the foresight to vote against [the] Iraq war when everyone else was voting for it,” he continued, a contrast with Clinton when she was in the Senate. “He was for marriage equality in the ’80s, when it wasn’t popular.”
“We need to do a better job taking care of each other,” he said.
Another early speaker said life and death situations should “not be decided by insurance or pharmaceutical companies” and warned against change that is “incremental to the point where you do nothing.”
If Sanders’ basic vision of healthcare for all is “too Pollyanna, if it is not realistic, something is wrong with the core of America.” He said that the United States has never been the perfect union envisioned by the Constitution, but Americans are always striving to achieve that perfection.
Some of the introductory speeches were even reminiscent of the enthusiasm for Republican Ron Paul in earlier campaigns. (Paul was campaigning with his son, presidential candidate and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, in front of a similarly sized crowd at the University of Iowa while this Sanders rally was going on.)
“What Bernie is saying now is really what he’s been saying all along. … What’s changed is we’ve started listening to him.”
This goes beyond normal political calculations. “Of course I’m here to try to win the caucus, the primary, the general election,” Sanders aid. But more important, he said, was to build a political movement united across race, gender, sexual orientation and income level.
“We will not allow Donald Trumps and other people to divide us up,” Sanders said. “We will stand united!”
Sanders nevertheless acknowledged Trump’s appeal. “People say the American people are angry,” he said. “You know what? I’m angry. They have a right to be angry.”
To Sanders, the problem is income inequality. It is Republicans who claim to stand for family values — the democratic socialist at one point asked the crowd if they knew what Republicans meant by the phrase and someone yelled back, “Hatred!” — and then oppose family medical leave. It is climate change and corporations who dump their workers on welfare rather than paying them a living wage.
Sanders went on an extended rant against the Waltons as the biggest welfare recipients in the country. (He was talking about the family behind Walmart, not the one featured in the iconic TV show.) He argued that by paying their employees starvation wages, they were swelling the welfare rolls. “Get off welfare, pay your workers a living wage!” he shouted.
Iowa polls show a close race between Sanders and Clinton, who came in third in the caucuses in 2008. The authoritative Des Moines Register poll has the former secretary of state leading by a narrow margin. A Quinnipiac poll released Monday shows Sanders with a slim lead.
Tara Roby, Sanders’ deputy field director, led Sunday night’s rally in a chant of “We … will … caucus!” Sanders is more reliant on younger voters and first-time caucus participants than Clinton.
Clinton’s underlying popularity with Democratic voters hasn’t been diminished by either Sanders’ surge or the growing questions over how classified information was handled on the private email server she used while serving as secretary of state. She also continues to enjoy strong minority support, something that would limit Sanders’ ability to capitalize on Iowa and New Hampshire wins over the reputed front-runner.
Ted Kennedy once appealed to liberals’ aspirations by telling them the “dream will never die.” But he delivered those lines at the 1980 Democratic National Convention as a defeated candidate, beaten by the more practical incumbent Jimmy Carter.
Nevertheless, there is something familiar about the argument between consolidating past liberal gains and pursuing a more transformative agenda. It didn’t work in Clinton’s favor last time.
