2016 Primary Election: Clinton says he understands voters' anger in stump speech for Hillary
Jenny Espino and Alayna Shulman
Redding Record Searchlight
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight President Bill Clinton speaks Thursday at Shasta College, campaigning for his wife for the upcoming primary election. (Photo: Andreas Fuhrmann)
People cheer President Bill Clinton as he speaks Thursday, June 2, 2016, at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. Bill Clinton was campaigning for his wife, Hillary, for the upcoming California Primary Election. (Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight) (Photo: Andreas Fuhrmann)
People cheer President Bill Clinton as he speaks Thursdaym June 2, 2016, at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. He was campaigning for his wife, Hillary, for the upcoming primary election. (Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight) (Photo: Andreas Fuhrmann)
People wait to get in to see President Bill Clinton speak Thursday, June 2, 2016, at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. Bill Clinton was campaigning for his wife, Hillary, for the upcoming primary election. (Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight) (Photo: Andreas Fuhrmann)
Uttering his name only once, President Bill Clinton came out swinging against Donald Trump and his policies during a speech Thursday at Shasta College in Redding.
The former president spoke to a crowd about 800 who had turned out for a get-out-the-vote rally for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Bill Clinton acknowledged the voter anger in the Democratic and Republican parties and their feelings that the political and economic system have failed them, noting how 80 percent of the American people have received no pay raises since the economic crash eight years and that median family income is lower than when he left office in January 2001.
He invoked the Irish poet W.B. Yeats' words that too much sacrifice can harden a person's heart. He told the crowd, all over the world people are screaming because of declining middle class, rising inequality, reduced social mobility and the feeling their borders are not protected.
But he asked them to rise above and look to a future that prefers bridges over walls, a reference to Trump's call to build a wall along the Mexican border.
'You gotta believe in a tomorrow economy and you gotta believe in cooperation, not conflict, and you can't turn people away at the door because you don't like their religion or their race or their whatever,' he told them at one point.
Unlike past elections, Clinton said this presidential election asks every American citizen to not only think how it will affect them and their children but also how it will affect the rest of the world.
He slammed Trump's slogan 'Make America Great Again' as nothing more than an imagined past and a way to keep the fight for an increasingly shrinking pie.
'For half of Americans, it wasn't so great,' he said.
Rather, the country had to think about making 'America great in the terms of the 21st century.'
Clinton held up Hillary Clinton as someone with the right values to 'work together' and grow the economy.
He talked about investing in modern infrastructure to have clean water, become a clean energy super power and bring broadband to rural areas in particular.
He called for more spending in science and technology so more students, such as those from Shasta College, can get jobs.
He urged for immigration reform. The way the GOP has handled the issue is good politics that help Democrats but it's not good for the country.
'I come here, as a biased but highly well informed observer,' Clinton said of his wife. 'I'm the only person here who has known my candidate since spring of 1971, 45 years ago. … I would never recommend anything that I thought would hurt my country.'
While the bulk of the potential first-husband's speech touched on Hillary Clinton's general policies and credentials as would-be commander-in-chief, Bill Clinton also catered his message to the rural audience. That's something that registered with Michael Worley, of Chico, who drove up to Redding to see Clinton in spite of Sanders' stop in his town the same evening.
'Bill Clinton really understands rural areas. He remembers what it's like to be, you know, small-town,' Worley said of the Arkansas native. 'In a way that a guy like (Republican presumptive nominee Donald) Trump just flies over. He has no clue.'
Fellow Chico resident Jane Martin said Bill Clinton's presentation, to her, was symbolic of the spirit of the Democratic party.
'He's so personable, and you understand that the Democratic party is really for the people,' she said.
Clinton evidently charmed several others at the event, including one woman who cried out, 'I love you, Bill!' and another who excitedly told her friend, 'I touched his hand!' after the talk ended.
When it comes down to the issues, though, Martin said she supports Clinton over Sanders because of her 'experience, electability and knowledge.'
Worley agreed, saying Sanders' ideas wouldn't mesh as well with the conservative local legislators who represent the area.
'Bernie Sanders, in another year, maybe,' Worley said.
Still, there were several protesters outside the rally who apparently felt the time for Sanders is now, including one man whose sign read, 'Join the revolution' and a woman who questioned 'Hill's bad judgment.'
While the Democratics' divide between Sanders and Clinton is typecast largely as a generational one that only sees older Democrats favoring the former first lady, 15-year-old Rose Miller came up from Chico to show that's not always true.
'There are, in fact, young people who support her,' said Miller, who is the president of the High School Democrats of Chico.
Miller said she favors Clinton's policies more than any other candidate's, particularly when it comes to women's and children's issues.
Meanwhile, Belinda Sidwell, of Cottonwood, said she hopes anyone who was on the fence over the election will have fallen for Clinton after Thursday's rally.
'To get (a Clinton) back in the White House would be amazing,' she said. (Bill's) just a great guy, and his wife follows right behind.'
But pretty soon, Sidwell said, Hillary Clinton will be the one 'right in front.'