Inside Bernstock: The DNC’s Sanders-loving campsite

PHILADELPHIA –– Bernie Sanders supporters in town for the DNC have taken over a section of Roosevelt Park and set up a makeshift camp dubbed “Bernstock”.

So today we headed over to find out what life in the camp is like – and what happens tomorrow when the convention is over.

These people are part of a movement called Journey for Bernie and have traveled crosscountry, picking people up along the way, just to be in Philly for the DNC.

Despite their candidate’s current standing – pulling out of the race and endorsing Hillary Clinton – Bernie fans have stayed in the park.

First up: a man approaches in a multicolored tie-die t-shirt and grabs me in a bear hug.

He introduces himself as Wanderer and feels clammy. Wanderer says he drove here from Tampa Bay in Florida, and shows me a tattoo of his name on his hands. Was it painful getting those tattoos? “The fingers were fine because they don’t have many nerve endings on,” Wanderer says.

“But when it got to the meat of the knuckles, that’s when it started to hurt.” We chat about the rigged system, then Wanderer grabs me in another hug and says: “tell you what brother, I want you to have a better day every day for the rest of your life.” It’s actually quite touching.

Next is Jesse, from Philly. Despite strong ties to Bernie, he tells us: “I’m definitely voting for Jill. The hope is that Uncle Bernie and Aunt Jill will get together for a political marriage.”

“We are all here for the people, not the politics,” echoes Jeff from New York.

After an hour or so of walking around I settled down next to a woman named Meagan, who sells Bernie pins.

She tells me she’s traveled here with Journey for Bernie all they way from Nevada. “I’ve been here for a week now. In the past few days things have taken a bit of a turn.

“People keep blaming the riots going on around us on Black Lives Matter, when realistically it’s usually some random white dude with a megaphone.”

“I’m sure you heard about the riots last night,” she adds. “As things were finishing up in the convention hall, we all began gathering around the fence and banging on it and yelling ‘Hear our voices,’ but out delegates were being silenced in there. Our democracy was stolen from us.

“We decided to follow some of the delegates and started walking joined by the Black Lives Matter movement, which I am also a proud part of. It was at this point that I took the microphone.

“Suddenly we hit a line of Secret Service members, and they began yelling, ‘Stop! Hold the line.’ Then they lined up and began intimidating us. None of us were sure how to handle it, because so far the cops here have been very nice to us, but this was different.”

Before parting ways, I ask her who she’s voting for in the fall: “I’m voting for Jill, because a vote for Hillary is a vote for Trump.”

It was then that I’m introduced to Michelle Mann, the woman who organized Journey for Bernie. “I’m here all the way from Utah,” she tells me excitedly.

I ask her about her stance on Hillary: “There is just no way she would ever win, even if you took out third party factors.

“They tell you a vote for Jill is a vote for Trump because they want you to believe that.” She confides in me that she’s still unsure of who she’s voting for.

“I might vote for Trump. Hillary is for war, but Trump is different. He is not as smart – we can overthrow him. The real problem around here is George Soros. He is a master of engineered social chaos.

“Since the day I came up with Journey for Bernie he has worked to diminish us into nothing. A week before we left for our trip, he and his people showed up with a load of money and told us they were interested in joining – I mean they seriously came out of nowhere.”

“Half of the campers here are funded by him, and they exist to feed people misinformation. For example, the other night we had a peaceful protest for Bernie going, and they told us to move to the stage (that they paid for and brought?) because that is where the delegates would be. When we got there they told us there was a mix up and then has us separate into smaller groups.

“‘We need some protesters over here, and some protesters over here,’ they yelled. But I knew what they were doing. They wanted to break us up so that we would seem smaller and less powerful. That night they hosted a concert on that stage – a stage that was supposed to be for voicing our concerns about the DNC.”

“This is a peaceful protest, and I will not let them or anyone else get in the way of that. This is not about us, it is about Bernie.”