Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders walked on to the Colorado Convention Center stage like a political rockstar. More than 11,000 supporters packed into Exhibition Hall C/D of the Colorado Convention Center on Feb. 16. The Bernie 2020 signs were being waved back and forth like lighters at a concert, and the smell of marijuana filled the air. 

Sanders was preceded by two bands and three guest speakers, but when he took the stage, the crowd turned the energy up to eleven. The sound of the crowd could have been heard in Boulder. Sanders’s presence had the crowd raging and roaring like a fire that we thought might never end.

As he spoke, the room would fall silent for a few moments, then it would erupt into cheers at his every pause. 

He began by introducing his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, as the future First Lady of the United States of America. After she left the stage, he went into his speech, in which he began by denouncing current President Donald Trump. 

“Our campaign is about a few fundamental issues, and at the top of the list is the need to defeat Donald Trump… We cannot continue to have a president who is a pathological liar, who is running a corrupt administration, who has no clue what the Constitution of the United States is about, who is a bully, who is vindictive, who is a racist, who is a sexist, who is a homophobe, who is a xenophobe, who is a religious bigot and those are his best qualities,” said Sanders. 

He then went on to call Trump a fraud. Sanders claimed Trump is not a friend of the working class like Trump claimed he was in the 2016 election. 

“Well Mr. Trump, you are not a friend of the working people, when you try to throw 32 million people off of the healthcare they have,” stated Sanders. 

Sanders followed up by delving into Trump’s ties with the wealthy, and his moves to help the one percent. Sanders spoke of Trump’s attempts to cut spending for Medicaid and Medicare, while providing tax cuts for the billionaires of America. 

Sanders used this to transition into the wealth distribution issue. 

“There is something fundamentally wrong in this country, when you got three people who own more wealth than the bottom half of American society,” stated Sanders.

He made a point to relate the wealth distribution to homelessness, which is a very relevant issue for Denver politics. 

“There is something wrong… when 500,000 people in America are sleeping out in the streets, while Trump and his billionaire friends get richer and richer and richer,” said Sanders.

He ended his piece on unfairness in the American economy by saying, “Together we are going to build a government and an economy that works for all of us, not just the one percent.”

Using that momentum, he commenced his criticism of billionaire involvement in politics.

“We are going to end a corrupt political system, in which billionaires buy elections. Democracy to me is one person, one vote, not Bloomberg or anybody else spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to buy an election,” declared Sanders. 

He then mentioned his plans to push for the public funding of elections. 

“We don’t go to billionaire’s homes to raise money. We don’t have a super PAC. This is a campaign for the working class by the working class,” stated Sanders to a roar of applause and cheers. 

Sanders transitioned into inequality and unfairness in the United States. 

“In this so-called booming economy, the average American worker last year saw less than a one percent increase in his or her income. A one percent increase in wages is not a booming economy,” stated Sanders. 

He detailed the increase in wealth for the rich in the past 45 years, and the lack of increase for the working class. He spoke of increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and eliminating unequal pay for women. 

“The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. We are going to raise that federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Women are not going to make $0.80 on the dollar,” declared Sanders.

He then made a hard transition to his plan to bring back unions. 

“Millions of workers want to join unions. We are going to make it easier to join unions. We are going to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create millions of good-paying union jobs,” announced Sanders

Drawing on the momentum and crowd enthusiasm from his union talk, he began speaking about education reform. 

“We are going to invest in public education… so that more kids can get a quality education regardless of the zip code in which they live. And because we believe in education, we believe in educators. That is why we are going to move in the direction of making sure that no teacher in America earns less than $60,000 a year,” stated Sanders.

Sanders followed up by declaring his plan to make all public colleges and trade schools tuition-free as well as erasing student debt.

“12 years ago, against my vote, Congress voted to bail out the crooks on Wall Street. Two years ago, against my vote, Trump and his friends gave trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the one percent and large corporations. So, if we can bail out the crooks on Wall Street, and give tax breaks to billionaires, we can cancel all student debt,” said Sanders. 

The crowd lost it at the old man behind the podium’s words. 

Bernie supporter and graduate student at MSU, Kaitlyn Brits, said, “Bernie’s plan will lessen the burden for students and allow them to become more successful… Some students go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt even for a state education.”

Sanders continued with the momentum into his talk about healthcare.

“For over a hundred years from the time when Teddy Roosevelt was president, to FDR, to Truman, to JFK, to Johnson, to Jimmy Carter, to Richard Nixon, to Barack Obama, presidents have been talking about universal healthcare. Well, the time for talk is over,” stated Sanders to thunderous applause.

Shortly after, he promised to pass Medicare for all during his presidency. 

Sanders then advanced into his plan to deal with climate change. He promised to act boldly and listen to scientists. He claimed climate change is a “fundamental moral issue,” that needs to be dealt with immediately to prevent “irreparable damage” to the world.  

The crowd loved his words on climate change. One supporter at the rally, Roseanne Henry, said, “I think one of the strongest parts of his platform is the environmental stuff, because he is serious about turning this around. His budget is the largest. Of all his promises it’s the largest one and perhaps the most critical one.”

Sanders promised to create 20 million good-paying jobs in sustainable energy, as the U.S. moves away from fossil fuels. 

Sanders ended his rally with a summary, that had the audience cheering louder and louder at every pause.

“The Republican establishment is getting a little bit nervous. Wall Street and the corporate elite are getting a little bit nervous. The Democratic establishment is getting a little bit nervous. And all these folks are trembling because workers are standing up for decent wages. Young people are demanding a decent education. The American people want healthcare as a human right. The American people want us to lead the world in fighting climate change. Brothers and sisters, with your help, we are going to win here in Colorado. We are going to win the democratic nomination. And we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in our history,” declared Sanders.