Sanders draws over 3,000 to Charleston for “Fighting Oligarchy” event
By Matthew Young, RealWV
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – “Well Patrick Morrisey, I know the facts, and now everyone else does too. And by the time that real West Virginians are done with you, we’re gonna make sure that you walk your ass a ‘Mountaineer Mile’ back to Jersey.”
That’s what community organizer JoAnna Vance told the more than 3,000 people gathered at the Charleston Convention Center on Saturday, for Senator Bernie Sanders’, (I-VT), “Fighting Oligarchy” event. Vance, who has been in longtime-recovery from substance and mental-health disorders, was the first of the evening’s five speakers.
“Like many West Virginians, I grew up in addiction,” Vance explained. “I lost my dad to a fatal overdose on Thanksgiving day, 21-years ago – back when Naloxone wasn’t readily available, and the word ‘overdose’ was barely a whisper.”
“I share this because I know that every West Virginian has been touched by this crisis,” Vance continued. “But I’m here to speak the truth to you tonight, and that’s that this crisis didn’t just happen – it was engineered. Big pharma flooded our state with millions of pills, while politicians on both sides of the aisle looked the other way.”
“Corporations made billions,” Vance added. “And the leader of the pack is, and has always been, Patrick Morrisey. Patrick Morrisey is a man who took money from big pharma, he lobbied for big pharma, he let big pharma destroy West Virginians, he let big pharma pay for his political career to come here and try to sue the very people he worked for that sent him here, and West Virginians were the ones that got sold out by the opioid settlement funds when we had to settle for not even pennies on the dollar.”
Although Vance did not take the podium until shortly after 6 p.m., the line to get in began forming some four hours before. According to event staff, 1,500 chairs were placed in the auditorium for attendees, with another 1,500 standing along the walls and behind the media area. The city fire marshal cut off entry once the number of attendees inside the auditorium reached 3,000.
Vance spoke for just over five minutes, and was followed by political consultant Morgan Fowler, activist Maria Gunnoe, and U.S. senatorial candidate Zach Shrewsbury. When Sanders took the stage shortly after 6:30, he was greeted with a standing ovation from the audience – the fifth such ovation of the evening.
“Some of you may be wondering what the senator from the great State of Vermont is doing in the great State of West Virginia,” Sanders began. “I happen not to believe in the ‘blue state-red state’ nonsense. In my state, Mr. Trump got 33% of the vote. In your state, he got 70% of the vote.”
“But you know what I have learned, and I believe from the bottom of my heart?” Sanders continued. “Whether you’re a working-class person in Vermont, or you’re a working-class person here in West Virginia, the issues and the struggles that you face are exactly the same. In Vermont we are struggling with inadequate wages, and that’s what you are facing here. In Vermont we’re paying some of the highest healthcare costs in the country, and you’ve got a healthcare crisis here.”
“In Vermont we can’t afford to send our kids to college, and neither can you,” Sanders said. “We’ve got environmental problems, and you’ve got environmental problems. So let us not allow the establishment people to divide us up. Not blue state or red state. Not whether we’re black, or we’re white, or we’re latino. Whether we’re gay or we’re straight, we are one people.”
“When we stand together, we can do enormous things,” Sanders added.
Sanders spoke for approximately 45 minutes, and addressed topics ranging from his concerns over the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” to his desire to see the national minimum wage raised to $17 per hour. However, it was the senator’s comments regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ongoing conflict in Gaza that elicited perhaps the most emotional crowd reaction.
“I’ve introduced legislation that would stop funding Netanyahu’s war machine,” Sanders told the audience, noting that of the 27 votes his proposal received, none were cast by Republicans. “In my view, Republicans in West Virginia – and around this country – do not want to spend billions of dollars to fund the starvation of children in Gaza.”
According to Sanders, many of his Republican colleagues don’t publicly oppose the funding of Israeli military efforts due to their fear of reprisal from within their own party.
“So what you’ve got is a campaign finance system in which the billionaires hold the tools, and those in Congress follow suit,” Sanders said. “The most important political change that we can make in this country is to overturn this disastrous ‘Citizens United’ ruling.”
“Citizens United” refers to Citizens United v. The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) – the 2010 Supreme Court ruling which nullified political spending restrictions for corporations.
“I want people – working people, low income people – to be able to run for office without having to beg billionaires for money,” Sanders said. “I want to see elections where what matters are the candidates’ ideas.”
“You disagree with me, great,” Sanders added. “Great, come on up and let’s argue. Your ideas versus my ideas – that’s called democracy.”
Saturday evening marked the third and final stop on the West Virginia leg of Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. The senator was at the Capitol Theatre in Wheeling on Friday, and the Lenore Community Center in Mingo County earlier on Saturday.
In closing, Sanders urged those in attendance to continue “Fighting Oligarchy,” saying, “They have unlimited amounts of money.”
“They own the media,” Sanders continued. “They control both political parties to some degree. But our job is not to hide under the covers. Our job is not to say, ‘Oh my God, there’s nothing we can do.’ That’s exactly what they want you to do. They want you to feel powerless, but you are not powerless.”
“When we stand together, we win,” Sanders added. “Let’s win this thing.”
