Tom Fiegen: Bernie Sanders’ Biggest Ally and Candidate for U.S. Senate

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

Mr. Fiegen criticized the way the dinner was executed.

“When we got to the JJ dinner and arrived at HyVee Hall, there were around 3,000 Bernie supporters with us. There were only seven metal detectors clearing four people per minute. I was in the middle of the crowd and it took me over two hours to get into the dinner. The program was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but I didn’t get in until 8. I was told that many supporters gave up and didn’t come into the hall. It’s very disappointing to me because as I travel to different counties in Iowa, it is apparent we’re a very old, grey party. There are rallies I go to where, at 57 years old, I’m the youngest one in the room. We badly, badly need more young people to get involved with the Democratic Party. It was so disappointing that the Iowa Democratic Party was either so inept or purposefully limited the number of metal detectors to discourage people from coming into the hall.”

Mr. Fiegen and other Sanders supporters were also disappointed in the oligarch structure that segregated audience members.

“Around the stage they had tables for dinners that were $1000 a plate. The outer ring, where I was, had tables for $120 a plate. For people and students who couldn’t afford [to sit] there, they sold them bleacher seats for $50 a ticket,” Mr. Fiegen said. “The thing that insulted me with the people on the bleachers, is they put up barricades so those people couldn’t mingle with the people at the tables. It gave very much the impression that they were second class citizens.”

During his introduction, Mr. Fiegen carried a Bernie Sanders sign on stage. His announcement led to an uproar of applause from the hall.

“The only part of the hall that was conspicuously silent were the people at the $1000-a-dinner tables in front of the stage. They sat there like they were cast in concrete. That further emboldened me. I decided to hold the sign above my head throughout the introduction. I wanted to communicate to the party machine people and the people at the $1000-a-plate tables that Senator Sanders’ campaign is a political revolution, that I am part of that revolution, and we intend to remake not only our party, but our democracy and our country, and that there are more of us than them.”

http://observer.com/2015/11/tom-fiegen-bernie-sanders-biggest-ally-and-candidate-for-u-s-senate/