Lights dimmed as Jessie Radlow and her Fishtown-based band Tutlie took the stage earlier this month at Boot and Saddle. It was the second of two sold out Bernie Sanders benefit shows organized by Philadelphia promoter and musician Jonathan Coyle.

Through the sea of spirited, young supporters, you could spot the night’s guest of honor accompanying the band on stage — a life-size cardboard cutout of Bernie Sanders. A small crowd gathered around 2D Bernie, waiting for their shot at a selfie, clamoring for the one they see as the people’s man, as a promisor of a revolution, as “one of us.”

“This isn’t just about Bernie Sanders — This is about all of us here tonight. Just by purchasing a ticket, you’re taking a step in the right direction,” Radlow said.

All proceeds from ticket purchases that night went directly to the Bernie Sanders campaign. Contributions like this from the creative community have helped catapult Sanders into fierce contention for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. He recently broke the record for the most small dollar contributions in a presidential campaign, averaging $25 dollars per contributor.

While Sanders has received beaming support from youthful communities, the 74 year-old Senator from Vermont remains somewhat unknown to a large segment of the American populace, even after years in office. However, this is not unfamiliar territory for the longest serving Independent in U.S. congressional history.

He began his career as a long-shot candidate for Mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, with a highly unexpected upset victory over a six-term incumbent. From there, the self-described “progressive” continued his political career as a congressman in the House of Representatives for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. His time in public service has been marked by efforts to improve conditions for the middle class in America by way of addressing issues like income inequality, racial divides, healthcare, employment opportunities and workers rights.

In the last year he has taken this platform and launched what is essentially a third-party bid for the presidency under the electable label of the Democratic Party. Yet, in spite of (or because of) his relative mystique within America’s political consciousness — coupled with populist flare for protesting the status quo — he has taken well to the role of captivating young and progressive-minded voters in communities around the country. To Bernie and his supporters, it’s not just an election; in their hearts and minds, it’s a movement.

“Bernie’s the first Presidential candidate in decades to be truly for the people,” Conrad Benner, life-long Fishtowner, photographer and founder of StreetsDept, said. “And you only need to look at his groundbreaking fundraising efforts with working class Americans — not big corporate interests — as proof of that.” Benner is one of the 2.3 million contributors that have donated to the Sanders campaign, helping in part to raise more than $26 million in the third quarter of 2015, according to the New York Times.

Radlow was also one those people who directly supported the senator’s campaign. She was “Feeling the Bern” when Spirit News caught up with her at the benefit concert, citing that the senator’s moral compass points to the average American.

“He wants to help working people, like us, by reducing the power that this tiny percentage of the world holds because they are wealthy beyond their own good,” Radlow said. “He wants to break up big corporations and focus on rebuilding a community with a better balance of equality.”

A commitment to suring up vast gaps of inequality transcends the communities of our own Riverwards. According to a recent report by the international charity Oxfam, it’s an issue that warrants much attention in neighborhoods the world over. The Oxfam report describes that the world’s richest 62 people now have as much wealth as half the world’s population.

“The message is that rising inequality is dangerous. It’s bad for growth and it’s bad for governance,” Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said. “We see a concentration of wealth capturing power and leaving ordinary people voiceless and their interests uncared for.”

The U.S. has one of the most unequal income distributions in the developed world, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, even after taxes and social-welfare policies are taken into account. If elected, Sanders has stated that he would seek to set out policies that would work to drastically reduce this economic inequality.

“It’s time to stop corporations from shifting their profits and jobs overseas to avoid paying U.S. income taxes,” the presidential candidate’s website states, “He will create a progressive estate tax on the top 0.3 percent of Americans who inherit more than $3.5 million. He will also enact a tax on Wall Street speculators who caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes and life savings.”

Benner believes equitable wealth redistribution will greatly benefit our community and beyond.

“As history has shown us, when the middle and working classes get their fair share of the pie, the entire nation prospers,” Benner said. “So, it means better paying jobs, more security for families and greater opportunities for everyone… I’d love to see people — young people especially — earning enough to buy homes again. I’d like to see more and better public transit options. And I’d like to see real investment in a green infrastructure.”

As Sanders support among young Riverwards residents grows (he is also leading in the two key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire), Republicans in Philadelphia and beyond not buying “the Bern.”

“I give Bernie credit for slowing down the coronation of Hillary Clinton,” Joe DeFelice, Philadelphia Director of The Republican Party of Pennsylvania, said. “But, frankly, it’s a done deal. [Clinton] is going to win the Democratic primary.”

According to NBC News, Clinton is leading the polls nationally between the two candidates by 14 points at 51 percent, while Sanders stands at 37 percent.

There are a number of months left to go with countless events and primary votes to be counted before polls can be solidified into firm objective reality. Philadelphia will play a key role in that process as well, as our city is hosting the Democratic National Convention for the third time in its history.

“I think the Democratic Party in Philadelphia is gonna have a rough time trying to choose between [Sanders and Clinton],” John Sabatina, Democratic State Senator of the 5th District, serving part Philadelphia County, said. “They’re both very qualified candidates.”

Benner believes Sanders is the only viable democratic candidate, stating, “Hillary is not a progressive candidate. She’s much more moderate/right-leaning than Obama on a number of issues. I think that Bernie has the political skill and respect in both parties to be able to work with the Republicans in the House and Senate and get things done.”

While supporters point to Sander’s agenda as one that serves the middle and working classes, his critics look at his platform as one littered with economically unsustainable programs, seldom ever paid for.

“We’ve already had a president (Obama) that’s far to the left. I don’t think we need a president even further to the left. We need one person to balance it out,” DeFelice said.

A contested report in the Wall Street Journal recently claimed that a Sanders Administration’s proposals would cost American taxpayers upwards of $18 trillion over the next decade.

“When I hear Bernie say the word ‘free,’ I wonder who that’s going to cost,” DeFelice said. “And frankly, it’s going to hit the hard working middle class that sit in those Riverwards, that wake up every morning, drop their kids at school, go to work, swing a hammer for 8 hours, go home and repeat the whole thing over the next day. They’re not gonna benefit from these programs.”

Supporters of Sanders in the Riverwards and Philadelphia cite that the senator’s policies and ideologies foster a greater sense of morality and compassion within American society. Sanders and his supporters have coined their revolutionary mantra as “Democratic socialism.”

Justin Harrison, an activist from Frankford, touched on this during a speech he gave during intermission at the Bernie benefit concert earlier this month.

“It’s a society that puts people before profits, the environmental before big oil and a society that creates a plan first for the needs of humanity, before the needs of the few,” Harrison said as he defined what Democratic Socialism means.

“When you look at our two options [in the Democratic Primary], Hillary or Bernie, Bernie’s the only one offering policies that truly help the working class. I’m voting for Bernie because I know he’ll be working for middle and working class Americans like me,” Benner said.

Whether you support Sanders or not, his campaign has brought people into the political conversation, unlike other, more recent elections.

“The more people we get involved in politics, the better. I still don’t see it having an effect with Bernie Sanders and I don’t see him beating Hillary Clinton in the primary,” DeFelice said. “But it’s great for democracy to get people more engaged. I haven’t seen this fervor for Bernie Sanders… maybe I’m not running in those particular circles. But I’m all for it.”

The youth vote could be a major determining factor in Sanders bid for the White House. But history suggests that’s unlikely; in Philadelphia’s most recent Mayoral Election, it was found that the 18-29 age group of voters was just 11 percent, whereas the 45 and older age group was somewhere in the 35-40 percent range.

“If [the youth] translate this fervor into voting, I think they’ll be taken more seriously,” DeFelice said. “Because while it may be great to see the fervor, we really have to see if they actually get to the polls.”

Ryan Stone, an event organizer from Fishtown, states, “[Bernie] is inspiring a political movement that extends beyond this election. Regardless of its outcome, people are recognizing they have to vote at all levels: local, school boards, mayors, etc.”

Stone, along with several others, are organizing a third Official Bernie Sanders Benefit show taking place at Kung Fu Necktie on January 28th.