Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 35, and Senator Bernie Sanders, 83, take the stage of a theater this Monday night in Madison, the most progressive and ascendant city in decisive and divided Wisconsin. They are the stars of the left of the Democratic Party, and present “the progressive argument” in favor of Kamala Harris with a message focused on the fight against inequality and racism exemplified in Donald Trump’s rally a few hours earlier in New York.
Ocasio-Cortez enters with salsa music. Sanders, with Power to the People. They hug each other, praise each other and ask the thousand of those already convinced who have lined up around the theater to mobilize their neighbors to vote for Harris in one of the states that has the most power to decide the result on December 5. November. Polls show a near tie in Wisconsin and the outcome could be decided by a few thousand votes.
What happened at Madison Square Garden
The Democratic congresswoman from New York, born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family, makes a passionate defense of the country’s unity against the racist messages uttered a few hours before at Madison Square Garden in his city. The Republican candidate’s rally included insults against Puerto Ricans, Latinos, Palestinians and Jews. A comedian said that Puerto Rico is “a floating garbage island,” the only supposed joke that the Trump campaign has distanced itself from.
“Let’s forget the idea that it’s just a joke or that it was just a comedian. We all saw that there were two teleprompters on both sides of that screen. They were loaded with words. And it wasn’t just about the fact that Donald Trump gathered tens of thousands of Americans to cheer those words,” says Ocasio-Cortez, who recalls Trump’s actions and condemnations.
“The identity of our country is much deeper than the division they want to stoke between us,” says Ocasio-Cortez, her voice almost breaking. “He’s talking about us, he’s talking about you. “He’s talking about all of us.”
“That racism is not a name or an insult. It is a description of a belief system. And Donald Trump believes that Americans are not equal. When you echo the words of Adolf Hitler… When you say ‘America for Americans’ you’re not talking about American citizens: you’re talking about who you think is loyal enough to Donald Trump, and that’s who you consider American . We cannot allow this to happen to our country. No, we must defend our nation,” proclaims the congresswoman to applause. “Kamala Harris has a vision for the future of our country… The polls are tight, but the election is clear.”
“We cannot elect a pathological liar and someone who is working night and day to blow up American democracy,” Sanders insists later.
Billionaires
The two talk about Harris’ proposals to expand public health services, raise the minimum wage and protect union rights. The two attack the billionaires who finance Trump’s campaign, such as Elon Musk, or who fear retaliation, citing Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and the Washington Postwhich has prevented its editorial team from publishing its editorial supporting Harris.
“If you’re a billionaire, Donald Trump has a better economic plan for you,” Ocasio-Cortez says. Harris’ plans, he emphasizes, are the ones that work for most workers.
Sanders insists that the fight against “greed” is one of the points where the United States has not made progress, although he also praises the current government for some progress. For example, Sanders says that for the first time in the United States there has been an Administration, that of Joe Biden and Harris, that “has had the guts” to confront the “greedy” pharmaceutical lobby.
Before getting on that stage, Sanders also asks for the vote for Harris in a video aimed especially at critics of the Biden Administration for not doing more against the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu. In the video he remembers the difference with what Trump says, who criticizes Biden for trying to stop the Israeli leader.
Convinced audience
Madison’s is a convinced audience, even of people who have already voted. On stage, a band of guitarists surrounded by banners with the messages “freedom” and “a new path forward” play classics. The program chains Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door of Bob Dylan with the somewhat more disturbing It’s The End of the World As We Know it (And I Feel Fine) REM
“Have you voted yet?” the singer asks amid shouts of agreement from the audience, a mix of ladies and university students in the campus area. “We have to take three more friends to vote.” In Wisconsin, early voting has been possible for a week. When asked who has already voted, the majority of the audience raises their hands.
Among the attendees, a 19-year-old student who is voting for the first time in a presidential election and a political veteran on the verge of retirement sit together.
Politics student Cameron Craig has already seen Barack Obama, Harris and Tim Walz at several rallies in Wisconsin. His first presidential elections seem “somewhat terrifying” to him due to the closeness of the result, according to the polls. “It’s fitting that it’s right after Halloween, but I’m hopeful. I hope things go the way we want. If not, I will continue fighting to try to change the things I can,” he says.
“We women are going to save the country,” encourages her neighbor, Deb Dell, with decades of political activism behind her and a former manager of a hypermarket chain who now works for a non-profit organization.
She says that although she is from Madison, she has also campaigned in New York for Ocasio-Cortez and hopes that one day she will be president. She cares for her sick mother and is especially interested in Harris’ plans to provide more assistance with care and protection of abortion rights with her nieces and nephews in mind. On the day of the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in June, he shared a message with a photo online: “It has to be Kamala.” “I think she’s going to win, especially after what happened last night,” says Dell, referring to the rally at Madison Square Garden and conversations with her Puerto Rican and rather conservative friends in Tennessee.
The fastest growing county
Madison is one of the keys to the victory of divided Wisconsin. Home to the Government and a large University, it is the overwhelmingly Democratic city of Dane County, where Biden beat Trump in 2020 by more than 50 points. Dane is also the county that has grown the most in population in contrast to the rest of the state.
Milwaukee, the other large city in the state, also traditionally Democratic, remains the most populated, with more than 500,000 inhabitants, but it has continued to lose inhabitants in recent years. Meanwhile, since 2010, Dane County’s population has increased 18%, and the indicators favor it.
“It is the capital. The state university is here. It has a large population that skews young, with a bias toward those with higher education and 75% Democratic voters. If those young and highly educated voters go to the polls in large numbers, that can win the state,” Jonathan Kasparek, professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, explains to elDiario.es. “It’s like the tail that wags the dog.”
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