Bernie Sanders – Response To Trump

Bernie Sanders – Response To Trump

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Thanks very much for joining me. We are living in a very, very crazy and unprecedented time. And if you are feeling a bit unsettled, a bit overwhelmed, you are not alone.

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/

Welcome to the club. Let me say a few words as to where we are today as I see it and where we should be moving in the future. Today as I think you all know, we have a president who is an authoritarian, who wants more and more power in his own hands, and does not believe in democracy or the rule of law.

He is a narcissist, and if he had his way, I suspect that half the buildings in the country would be named after him. He is a pathological liar. He is a corrupt kleptocrat who has increased his wealth and the wealth of his family by billions of dollars since he has been president.

And despite campaigning against endless wars, he and his pal Netanyahu started an unprovoked war with Iran that has already killed many thousands of people throughout the region, increased the destabilization of an already unstable area, and has driven up prices here in the United States and around the world. But it is not just Trump and his policies that worry people. Today we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of our country.

While 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, trying to afford housing and food and health care and other basic necessities of life, the richest people in our country have never ever had it so good. The top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 93%, and if you can believe it, one man, Mr. Elon Musk, the world’s first trillionaire, now owns three times more wealth than the bottom half of our nation, and that is 170 million people. Meanwhile, economists tell us that our younger generation will likely have a lower standard of living than their parents.

But it’s not just Trump and income and wealth inequality that is bothering people. Today as climate scientists have been predicting for years, we are now experiencing record-breaking heat waves in the United States and throughout the world, heat waves that have caused many thousands of deaths. In addition, as a result of rising temperatures, we are seeing more and more drought, flooding and forest fires.

And yet, because of the incredibly stupid policies of Trump, we are cutting back on the development of renewable energy and putting more and more money into fossil fuels. But it’s not just Trump, it’s not just income and wealth inequality, it’s not just climate change that people are worried about. Increasingly, Americans are concerned about the impact that AI, artificial intelligence, will have on their lives.

Let us be clear, AI and robotics are the most transformational technologies in the history of humanity. They will impact our economy with the likely loss of many millions of jobs, they will eviscerate our privacy rights, undermine our democracy and negatively impact the mental health of our children. And if AI ever becomes independent of human control, it could threaten the very existence of humanity.

Oh, and by the way, our healthcare system is broken and dysfunctional, we have a major housing crisis, some 20 million families are spending at least half of their limited incomes on housing, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth and one out of three seniors are struggling economically. So why do I mention all of these things? Honestly, really, Boy Scout honor, it is not to depress you, it is simply to remind you that the crises facing this country are enormous and in many ways unprecedented. And what that means from a political perspective is that the only way we can effectively address these crises is through bold and decisive action.

Establishment politics and the same old, same old status quo policies are not going to work. That is precisely what got us here in the first place and that is what we have got to move away from, all of which leads me to the Senate Democratic primary in Michigan on August 4th. And what’s going on there is absolutely unbelievable.

In that primary, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is the candidate that I and almost all progressives are supporting. He is running against an establishment Democrat, Congresswoman Haley Stevens. As a physician, Abdul knows how broken our healthcare system is and supports Medicare for All.

He understands that we need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage and that we must make it easier for workers to join unions. He understands that at a time when the billionaires have never ever had it so good, we need progressive taxation in this country and that the billionaire class has got to start paying their fair share of taxes. He understands that AI and robotics must work for ordinary people and not just make the big tech billionaires who own the industry even richer.

He understands that instead of spending huge amounts of money on the Pentagon, we should start building the millions of units of low income and affordable housing that this country desperately needs. He understands that we can create millions of good paying jobs by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy. And very importantly, he understands that at a time when so many Americans are hurting, we should not be providing the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel with billions and billions of dollars in order to destroy the Palestinian people.

Now that is what Abdul believes and what he is fighting for. And as a strong progressive, there really is nothing terribly surprising about that. That’s what progressives believe.

But here is what is surprising, shocking, and frankly, disgusting. It turns out that Abdul El-Sayed is not really running against Haley Stephens. He is running against AIPAC, the right wing super PAC that supports the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel, as well as other billionaire funded super PACs.

Unbelievably, and I want you to please hear this, AIPAC and allied billionaire funded super PACs have already spent nearly $50 million to defeat Abdul in the Democratic Senate primary. $50 million in one state, the state of Michigan, and there is still three weeks left to go. And that, it turns out, is almost 15 times all of the spending in support of Abdul.

My friends, what you’re looking at in Michigan right now is what a corrupt billionaire funded campaign finance system is all about. This is what billionaires buying elections is all about. This is what the undermining of American democracy is all about.

And let me say to my friends in Michigan, I would really urge you to vote for Abdul even if you don’t agree with everything that he says. Because it is absolutely imperative that if we’re going to save democracy, we have got to tell the billionaire class they cannot buy elections. So this is a lot more than whether Abdul, what Abdul’s position is or what Haley Stevens’ positions are.

This is whether or not democracy survives or we let billionaires control our political process. So, let us all stand together. Let us take on oligarchy.

Let us take on a corrupt campaign finance system. Let’s do everything that we can.