BETHLEHEM, Pa. — More than 5,000 people gathered at Lehigh University’s Stabler Athletic & Convocation Center this afternoon as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to the Lehigh Valley, delivering a rage-fueled critique of economic inequality and the Trump administration.
The 83-year-old Vermont senator, flanked by U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, local labor leaders, and Lehigh Valley working-class residents, focused his message on expanding social programs and challenging what he called a “government of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class, and for the billionaire class.”
Sanders specifically criticized the administration’s nominations of the nation’s wealthiest individuals to head federal departments, among Trump’s other efforts to elevate the top 1% within his first 100 days.
Sanders directed pointed remarks at District 7 Congressman Ryan Mackenzie regarding pending legislation: “In your district and all across the country, millions are struggling to put food on the table,” Sanders said, referencing a reconciliation bill that would cut over $800 billion from Medicaid, nutrition programs, and housing. “Don’t vote for that terrible piece of legislature.”
Third-generation retired steelworker and navy veteran Tom Seegers praised Sanders’ Social Security Expansion Act, which would require all income brackets to contribute to the Social Security system.
This would eliminate the current cap on taxable earnings and ensure the wealthy contribute their fair share to expand benefits for all recipients.
Healthcare reform remained a central theme of his address. “The U.S. is the only major country today to not guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right,” Sanders said.
“The function of healthcare is not to make money for pharmaceutical and insurance companies.”
Rep. Deluzio emphasized unity in his remarks: “It doesn’t matter how you pray, the color of your skin, or who you love — we are all in this together. The oligarchs, they want to divide us. We stand together and we fight for the common good.”
The rally featured several local speakers, including Enid Santiago, who said, “We must demand a government that puts people over profit. We cannot be led by billionaires. We gotta stick together, or we’re never going to get through the next three and a half years.”
Tim Hertzog of Local 677, representing workers at Mack Trucks, delivered one of the day’s most powerful messages: “As long as we stand together, we have the power. We’re not asking for handouts, we’re demanding justice.”
He challenged Ryan Mackenzie and like-minded politicians with a direct question: “Are you with the people that built this country? Or the ones that bleed it dry?”
“We must defeat Trumpism, but that is not enough,” Sanders continued. “We are the richest country; there is no reason anyone shouldn’t have a decent standard of living. We need a political revolution in the deepest sense. We are here to transform America, and the only way we do it is to transform ourselves.”
Sanders received some of his loudest cheers when discussing education: “Young people shouldn’t have to go into a lifetime of debt in order to get the education they need, and the education our country needs from them.”
The senator concluded with a call to action: “If we stand together around an agenda that speaks for working people, there is nothing that can stop us.”
Catherine Wilbur, a Lehigh University student who attended today’s rally, expressed her support after the rally: “Bernie Sanders is doing what he needs to speak for the rest of America that Donald Trump is not supporting and not fighting for.”
The rally began at 1 p.m., with doors opening at 10:30 a.m., and was free to registered attendees.
During his presidential campaign, Sanders last visited the Lehigh Valley in April 2019 for a Fox News town hall at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.
