Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Humans of the DNC

July 28, 2016
Royalton, Vt. resident Randy Leavitt poses for a portrait on July 26, 2016, the second day of the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia. Leavitt said he has supported Sen. Bernie Sanders for a long time.
Royalton, Vt. resident Randy Leavitt poses for a portrait on July 26, 2016, the second day of the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia. Leavitt said he has supported Sen. Bernie Sanders for a long time. —
Photo by Nic Antaya | and Nic Antaya The State News

Randy Leavitt

Royalton, Vermont

Masquerading in a Superman costume, Leavitt has been standing on structures all week posed like the man of steel, holding up a sign that reads “Bernie is my superhero.”

“I’ve had this costume for years as a Halloween kind of thing,” Leavitt said mentioning he wore it to an anti-Trump rally in Burlington, Vt. when Trump came to town.

“I get to talk to a lot of people,” Leavitt said. “A lot of people, you wear a Superman suit and it kind of disarms people and they want to come up and say hi. It’s sort of why I do it, I get to talk to people.”

The reception to it has not always been pleasant as Leavitt said people have whispered “Damn Democrat” to him on occasion.

“Most everybody is pretty cool about it,” Leavitt said. “It’s cartoony, it’s fun, I get to say something without having to be belligerent.”

Asked if Bernie really is his superhero, he didn’t mince words.

“Hell yeah,” Leavitt said. “I’ve voted for him more times than most people in this town.”

Mark Alexander

Falls Village, Connecticut

Alexander towers above everyone in an effort to bring a little humor. Walking on homemade stilts, he said the reason he’s out in downtown Philadelphia is simple — “Bernie!”

“We’re all part of a troupe of stilt dancers that works all over the East Coast and Central America, South America,” Alexander said. “We travel around and perform on stilts and sometimes we do it because we’re needed.”

Alexander is the leader of the troupe called the Mortal Beasts and Deities and said his message to the people today was, “ridicule pragmatism.” He lives deep in the woods of Connecticut and does it get out much he said.“It takes a lot to pull me out of the woods,” Alexander said.

Allan Axelrod

Champaign, Illinois

“There’s a couple things,” Axelrod said of his choice to vote third party. “We can't have Trump, so let’s get passed the fact he’s an intolerable candidate and look at what our alternatives are.”

A student at the University of Illinois, he came out to show solidarity with the third party movement and to decry both major parties.

“Why is it viable to consider a third party?” Axelrod asked. “Before the RNC and after the endorsement of Clinton by Sanders there was a 1,150 percent increase in Google searches for a third party candidate and a 1000 percent increase in fundraising for Jill Stein not to mention a 500 percent increase in fundraising for the Libertarian party.”

He pointed it out too that all those events occurred before the DNC email leaks.“No one knew about Sanders a year ago and everybody was disorganized and mostly apathetic when it came to the political process,” Axelrod said. “Now people are organized and they’re angry, anger is an energy and I think we’re going to be able to see a much quicker ramping up of a third party candidate than in history.”

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