It’s not often you find 34,000 people in a park on a Friday evening, but they were not there just for fun but rather for unity and community. On Friday, March 21, a large crowd filled Civic Center Park to hear Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tag team their Fighting Oligarchy Tour.
“This is a difficult moment in American History,” Sanders said. “We are not going to let the billionaire class have all of the power.”
At eighty-three, Bernie Sanders remains the longest-serving independent member of Congress in US history; however, he may serve his final term in the Senate in 2030. This tour is part of his response to Donald Trump’s reelection. The goal: to engage in genuine conversations with everyday Americans about how to deal with corrupt interests in our political system.
“We will not allow America to become an oligarchy,” Sanders said. “This nation was built on working people, and we’re not going to let a handful of billionaires run the government.”
His counterpart at the event, Ocasio-Cortez spoke of her personal experiences as a server working long hours for her family, relating to many people in the crowd. Meanwhile, she discussed how power and corruption are major issues affecting Americans today.
“Power and corruption is taking over this country like never before,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And we are here, most importantly, because we know that a better world is possible.”
In response to the Fighting Oligarchy speeches, the audience frequently chanted, “Tax the rich! Tax the rich!” You could also hear the occasional ‘boo’ when anyone in the Trump administration was mentioned. For many, the large crowd made it difficult to see the speakers. Some even found a spot on the rooftop of the Denver Post building.
Erin Joy Swank stood a crowd’s length away from the rally’s speakers but remained actively engaged. She wore a vibrant and colorful dress, each a color of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, along with squares of white.
“My RBG dress made a more visible statement than my similar ‘I dissent’ lapel pin,” Swank said. “The current administration is fighting the system of checks and balances that she worked so hard to uphold for so many years.” Swank, a union stage manager, not only loved being around like-minded individuals who care but also the empathy in their words and actions.
Just past the security checkpoint and rows of metal detectors, bottles, bags and purses were lined up or piled up on the tables of the security kiosk.
“I was surprised that I couldn’t bring my water bottle into the venue,” Swank said. “But a bunch of us stacked ours outside by a tree. And, as expected, it was still waiting there for me when I was leaving,” Swank said. “We look out for each other and should continue to do so as a country.”
Christina Sanchez, another attendee, is an energy worker, healer and sound bath practitioner. This is where the heavy yet invigorating sage smell that permeated the crowd came from. Sanchez stood there, holding a bundle of sage and wearing a garment to keep warm in the slightly cool air. Sanchez’s partner sat next to her as they listen to Ocasio-Cortez’s final message onstage.
“I am here to bring the balance, to bring peace, to bring the sacred smoke to hold a place for everyone here,” she said. Sanchez, a Native American woman and co-owner of Abundant Horizons, a company that specializes in spiritual work, is also a volunteer ancestral healer. She expressed feelings of doubt and abandonment in the community, and her goal that day was to bring support and balance.
“We need community,” Sanchez said. “We need to talk to each other. We need to try to understand each other’s views and how we see things differently and come together to create something we all can walk in.”
This is just one of several political gatherings in Denver in recent months where ordinary citizens, like Sanchez, have attempted to make their voices heard. This has included protests against Gov. Jared Polis’ proposed funding cuts to public education, as well as President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders targeting immigrants.
Many people have already been impacted by the president’s executive actions during his first three months. One such individual is a graduate student from the University of Colorado Boulder who attended Friday’s Fighting Oligarchy event. The student agreed to share their story; however, for safety reasons, their name will not be included.
“In 2023, I decided to sponsor a Ukrainian refugee,” the graduate student said. “I wanted to do something to help all those people affected by Russia invading Ukraine, and I was hoping that my kindness would spark other people to make generous moves as well.”
During his time in Moldova, he visited the man in a refugee camp and witnessed what was once a “normal” community in ruins.
“I brought him to Colorado in 2024, and he’s been living with me for almost a year now but now his temporary protective status might be taken away,” the student continued, “ICE is invading people’s homes and stuff. He’s scared, so he’s actually making a move [by] leaving America.”
This comes after ICE enforcement operations that are cracking down on illegal immigration. The Trump administration has conducted thousands of raids in the last few weeks nationally. Yet that’s not the only concern of the graduate student and space industry employee; their job just might be jeopardized as well.
“I have personally lost access to systems I’ve been using for years with no explanation why that happened,” the student said. “I am pretty frustrated with how DOGE and Elon are handling all of us.”
Other people in the Fighting Oligarchy crowd included Casey Hampf, an outreach manager for the Ark Valley Humane Society for animals. When asked why she was attending the rally, Hampf discussed how housing affects animal rights.
“The number one reason why a lot of animals get surrendered to our humane society is because of housing issues: people who can’t afford their rent or move to a place that does not allow animals,” Hampf said. “There is an influx of homeless pets because of that. I chose the Humane Society because [it] wants to be part of the community, so we provide a lot of community resources.”
And maybe that’s what is necessary: rather than taking from the community, we build collectively with the resources and the means that are already here. From seeing a couple dressed as the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam to witnessing genuine camaraderie at the event, it became clear that perhaps the country is not as lost as it appears.
Fighting Oligarchy tour attendee Dorothy Winkler, a volunteer at the local Denver hospital who witnessed firsthand the struggles of healthcare workers during the pandemic, provided this perspective on what is required to move past this political moment.
“We have to be supportive of each other,” Winkler. “We have to be true to the values that our parents taught us; that’s how we’ll move forward.”
