While the Democratic Party establishment and the corporate media are in the midst of an "all-out" effort to stop the momentum of Sen. Bernie Sanders ahead of upcoming 2020 primary voting in South Carolina on Saturday and Super Tuesday next week, the Sanders campaign on Tuesday released a new ad focused on a message of unity; the need for racial, gender, and economic justice; and why increasing numbers of people in the United States are done being told to wait for progressive change to be realized.
The new ad—titled "The Time Is Now"—features a portion of a speech by national campaign surrogate Michael "Killer Mike" Render delivered last September at Bennett College, an HBCU in North Carolina, during a campaign tour through both Carolinas. Last month, a video of the speech posted online went viral and has so far received over 3.5 million views.
"Say: the time is now," Render tells the crowd. "Look to your neighbor and say: neighbor, the time is now. There are more of us. We are stronger. We will wait no longer.
Watch:
In the speech, Render tells the crowd:
One of my favorite writers growing up was a man named James Baldwin.
And I remember Baldwin saying, "You asked my father to wait, my brother to wait, my uncle to wait. How long must I wait on freedom? How long must I wait on rights and equality and Liberty?"
And as a black child, that resonated with me because I knew I had been denied, my father had been denied, my grandfather had been denied and I personalized that.
But as I grew, I started to understand poor white people who have been denied, women have been denied, gays and lesbian, transgender people been denied. Immigrant children have been denied.
Everybody, outside of that one percent, has been denied.
So I want you to take a few seconds to, like they do in the black church, look to your left and look to your right.
Say: the time is now. Look to your neighbor and say: neighbor, the time is now.
There are more of us. There are more of us. We are stronger. We will wait no longer.
We will not wait four more years.
We will not wait three more presidents.
This is the President, the next president of the United States of America.
The time is now.
The message of the speech and the ad itself received praise online.
"I have chills," said one Bernie supporter on Twitter.
"Can we just play this on every television in Super Tuesday states please," said another in response.
