Chicago — Bernie Sanders did stand-up Wednesday. To urge labor Democrats to stand up to their own party.
The Vermont U.S. Senator and two-time presidential candidate shifted from a comedic riff to an oratorical rip to issue that challenge at a noon Wednesday gathering of the party’s Labor Caucus at the Democratic National Convention held in the McCormick Place Convention Center (where daytime activities take place.)
A couple hundred labor activists gathered in a vast ballroom to hear Sanders more up close than in his address to 23,500 people the night before at the United Center prime-time televised proceedings.
Labor union presidents at the Wednesday caucus sang the praises of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. They urged union members to work hard to elect her to preserve and expand labor gains.
Sanders also urged the group to elect Harris. With no references to the Democratic ticket’s strengths — but rather as a way to stop Republican Donald Trump from regaining the White House.
Before he did that, Sanders slipped into comedian mode to riff on Trump’s and other Republicans’ characterization of pro-labor Democratic policies as “extremist.”
“They say all of these people — you , me — all of are demands are ‘far ‑left demands.’’ Just ‘outrageous demands!’ Sanders began with an incredulous expression.
“We believe that health care is a human right. How outrageous can you get? It only exists in every other country on earth! But in America? Oh my god! Who are these radical communists who think that health care is a human right?”
Ba-dump bump.
“We think — are you ready for this one? I know it is tough — we should raise the minimum wage to seven and a quarter an hour.”
Sanders paused. Let the line hang in the air. He slapped his head, thrust his arms to the sides. He didn’t stretch his neck to the side like Rodney Dangerfield, although you could almost picture it.
“How crazy can you get?”
He was just getting started.
“Maybe we think that we should punish CEOs who punish workers who exercise their constitutional right to form a union. Oh my god! Growing a union movement. Wow. Terrible. Far-left stuff.
“And in a competitive global economy, we want to be competing successfully as a nation, we kind of believe that from child care to graduate school, all of our kids regardless of their income should be able to get the education they need.”
The crowd applauded.
“Wanna hear another radical extremist idea? Maybe we should take action to ensure that the planet that our kids and our grandchildren inherit is livable.”
“Yeah,” a voice called out amid cheers.
Now came the punch line: “Our demands are what the vast majority of the American people believe.”
Sanders cited polls showing 70 percent public support — including a majority of Republicans in some cases — for taxing the wealthy to boost social security, raising corporate taxes, adding dental and hearing and vision coverage to Medicare.
“It’s not some union leaders sitting in a room coming up with wild and crazy ideas,” he concluded the “wild and crazy” portion of his talk.
Next came a call to action.
It came with an appeal for honest self-examination by Democrats of their own party. (Sanders is actually an independent, but caucuses with the Democrats and sought the party’s presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020.)
“You have a phony and a fraud billionaire like Donald Trump — now here is the hard question, and don’t slough it off — how come the majority of working-class people are supporting him?” Sanders asked, given popular support for Democratic positions on labor and the social safety net.
“What is going on? What are the failures of the Democratic Party that allowed that to happen? What are we not doing so that working people would prefer a fraud and a phony and an anti-union person like Trump?”
Because, in Sanders’ view, the Democrats have failed to represent them.
“Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck,” he stated. “People are working at starvation wages. They’re worried about their kids. They can’t afford housing. They can’t afford health care. ‘Does anyone give a damn about me?’ Too often the answer is no.”
“We have got to beat Trump. We have got to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Sanders continued. “But: The day after, what we have got to do is mobilize, increase membership in the trade union movement, bring the unions together. Because the union demands are American workers’ demands.” Pro-union Democrats will need to push their own government to favor their policies over corporate policies even if they win the presidential election, he argued.
“Tonight some of you will be in the convention. I want you to look at up at some of those big boxes up there and know that those boxes cost hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars, paid for by the largest corporations in America. They’re invested in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They don’t care who wins. They represent the 1 percent. Now our job is to mobilize our people. We represent the 99 percent.”
Then the caucus session’s headliner dropped the mic and exited stage left. The crowd stood for a standing ovation. In this one caucus room, if not the skybox-ringed sports arena, he had them in his corner.
Standing up on North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.