As Liberation News continues to talk with people from across the United States at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the rage and anger only seems to be escalating. Working people from Oregon, California, New Mexico, Idaho to Indiana reported how they had taken a few days off of work, losing much needed wages, to drive as many as 25 hours to reject the Democratic Party machine.
Many young people talked about how the Sanders campaign represented for them the first genuine source of hope in a life marked by poverty, suffering and endless war. People attributed this to the neoliberal policies and imperialism of the Clintons and to the billionaire class that Trump belongs to.
For example, Tuesday morning, right up against the police lines and eight foot steel fence barricades at the DNC, Liberation News spoke with Josh McCarty who had traveled with two friends from Richmond, Indiana and camped out in tents in the park across from the convention.
An impassioned McCarty argued that, “we had elections stolen and there are a lot of shady things going down.” McCarty explained how the delegates at the convention hold the voice of the people and “if they don’t have a little bit of empathy and compassion and vote with their heart and vote for what they know is best for this country, then we are just going to have more war and more poor people.”
Offering biting analysis and capturing the sentiments expressed by thousands of enraged protesters, McCarty elaborated for Liberation News:
“Everything that is wrong with this country is just going to keep getting worse. The only person who is in the picture who can fix it, and we all wanted it fixed, is Bernie Sanders. And they stole an election, it is proven. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was hired by Hillary Clinton after she resigned for unfair practices of suppressing Bernie Sanders and casting bad light on his campaign. Two months before the nominations came it was said that Hillary Clinton was the presumptive nominee. How can you not be biased, how can you not stay in the middle and not go to one side or the other, when two months before the election, you are already declaring Hillary Clinton the winner? It is a sad, sad thing.
“All I know is that the Bernie Sanders campaign and feeling the Bern is not something that I just jumped on. It sparked life in me. It gave me something to believe in. It pulled me out of a deep, dark depression. Our lives are on the line.
“We are not as dumb as they think we are. If we all communicate, and talk, and get together, and actually sit down and have conversations, we can flip this system man. We can save this world, and this country, and do good for people. Instead of going and killing more people and making more wars for resources (i.e. oil) and profit. But no, our country is based on war, we don’t care about collateral damage, and the media barely covers it, they barely cover anything. That’s why I am on social media, that’s why we are out here trying to raise awareness. You can’t fix something if you don’t know about it.”
Other convention protesters commented on how close they think American workers are to the boiling point, steps away from outright rebellion. As the convention winds down and the rage of the working class continues to escalate, the search for a way out of this system is only more urgent.
Many people in the streets expressed hope for a vehicle that can keep the struggle for political revolution moving forward. A great many people from across the country enthusiastically embraced the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s message of organization and revolutionary change.
