Bernie: The Podcast | Episode 1 - The Political Revolution

hi this is Senator Bernie Sanders last year along with John Nichols the great Progressive journalist with the nation magazine I wrote a best-selling book called it's okay to be angry about capitalism in it we tackle the issues that you don't hear much about in the mainstream media from the extraordinary wealth and income inequality that our nation is experiencing to the growing labor movement to corporate control over the media it's self if I must say so myself this is a very good book and it's just been republished in paperback if you'd like a copy of the book please make a donation of $12 or more or whatever you can afford to my campaign and we will get you a copy you can do this at Bernie sanders.com sbook again that's Bernie sanders.com sbook thank you very much so Senator uh we're GNA well John it's good to be with you and thank you very much for your help on the book I remember those long days and nights in Burlington out on the porch yeah uh going over a whole lot of stuff so thank you very much it was a it was a it was a interesting adventure and I always tell people that um you're easier to work with than people think I don't know exactly what that means no you were surprisingly engaged with but I don't know what people think that's the concern all right they I think you're very easy to work with I'm sure so let me talk about let's let's start out um in the moment where we're at now and we'll work our way back through some of the the subjects in the book and it happens we're talking in an election year and the book deals a lot with politics it starts out uh looking at some of your campaigns along the way building up to that 2020 race where Donald Trump got beat by Joe Biden and so let me Begin by asking you what should people be thinking about politics right now well I think they should be appreciating that um this election is of extraordinary importance in so many respects uh it is important because we are running against uh the most dangerous political figure in the modern history of this country uh and I I just want to make it clear to people what a trump Victory is about I think sometimes we Slugger you know slouch it off uh Trump does not believe in the concept of climate change so what does that mean it means not only that all of the work we have done in trying to transform our Energy System away from fossil fuel will be undone but every other country on Earth is going to say hey if the second largest emitter in the world is given up on trying to transform the energy systems we're not going to do it either and that really means dooming our kids in future generations to a very very very unhealthy perhaps uninhabitable world so you don't need to know anything more than that to understand how dangerous Trump is but obviously the danger is is is much greater than just that uh you know for decades and I don't have to explain this to anybody who's watching or listening uh women have had to struggle to secure their proper place in American society not there yet but you know huge victories have been won over the years and now what we have seen is a result of uh a Supreme Court decision fueled by Trump's three appointees to the Supreme Court uh roie Wade was overturned and all across this country now uh women are losing their basic rights uh to control their own bodies uh and then you look at issues uh like healthcare uh you had in Trump uh a president uh who wanted to throw 32 million people off the Affordable Care I'm not a great fan of the Affordable Care I believe in Medicare for all but it was not insignificant you don't just throw 32 million people uh off of that uh you have a president uh in Trump who gave massive tax breaks at a time of wealth and income inequality of an unprecedented level massive tax breaks to the billionaire class and on and on and on it goes so I think the point for me and what I will be saying for the next many many months is okay people are not enthusiastic about Joe Biden I got it uh and we've got to do as much as we can to make Biden as Progressive as he can and I know we're all concerned I hope we're all concerned about the hor horrible situation now in Gaza where Biden has not been as strong and effective as he should be uh but we also have to take a look at the uh at what this election means means overall and what it will mean if Trump gets elected and we cannot allow that to happen and that gets to to something that's always been a a constant in your long political career and that is that you you obviously look and you just did at a number of issues at the moment right issues immediate issues right but there are also sort of the overarching issues the big ones that uh that don't always get addressed in politics and one of the Striking things about the Biden presidency and the kind of run up to it was that you had a lot of influence there and a lot of you were talking to the president a lot you're pushing the president to move toward something dare we say attempting to approximate a new deal obviously that didn't all get achieved but but that's also something that's at stake at this point right that possibility of going big one of the things and that that's right John um where Biden does not get the credit that he deserves is that I think on economic issues he is prepared to think pretty big and uh I know about that from a very personal level because I work with the president when I was chairman of the budget committee and we were working on the American Rescue plan and I just want everybody you know as Americans I think we I don't know if it's Universal phenomenon but we certainly do have short memory spans right so go back 3 and a half years in the midst of the terrible Co pandemic and we remember hospitals being overrun with patients thousands of people dying every year no we're knowing how we're going to get a handle on this terrible illness I mean what comes to my mind is nurses doctors treating patients but they didn't even have the protective equipment they need the mask the gowns the gloves that they needed dying because they were trying to save lives and in the midst of that pandemic as we also recall when we think about it is the economy collapsed people were not going to work um and what we set out to do is to say okay you got a Public Health crisis we got to deal with that obviously Trump did a terrible job on that buy and launch we got an economic crisis we got to deal with that what do we do so we worked on what became known as the American Rescue plan the $1.9 trillion bill which turned out to be the largest I think the largest single uh uh bill in in the history of the country and as people will remember provided $1,400 for every individual when people were desperate for cash it put money into housing and prevented evictions extended unemployment dealt in a very bold way with child care at the time etc etc uh it was a very comprehensive emergency package it felt a little new deal it was very new deal and I will tell say this you know it ended up at 1.9 trillion which is a lot of I don't know that any single Bill non Appropriations bill was ever that large and Biden said look you can get more do it you got I'll sign whatever you get so he understood the enormity of the crisis facing the American people was there with us and what we ended up doing and he doesn't get any credit for that in the midst of a pandemic in the midst of an economic downturn we took the country out of that much faster than many of the pundits thought possible so so let's talk about how we got to that point where a president Democratic president would be open to going that big and too much in politics we tend to look at personalities we say oh well this is a this is the great leader who's arrived in reality movements make things happen and your 2016 and 2020 campaigns which we talk about quite a bit in the book those campaigns were about an attempt to transform not just the Democratic politics but the politics of the country see unlike Hillary Clinton in 20 16 Biden did understand just what you're saying that we were part not just me we say not me us we were part of a mass movement of people and Biden was smart enough to understand a these guys have some very good ideas may not agree with him all he doesn't and B if Biden if I Mr Biden want to become president of the United States you know what it might be a good idea to work with these guys I got steal some of these ideas and work with them yeah yeah so what we did as um you certainly know and many of our viewers know uh is Biden and I worked out an agreement that said okay look we're going to do a series of task forces dealing with the major issues facing the country Health Care education climate women's issues ETC and we brought forth some of the leading Progressive thinkers in the country and Biden brought forth some of the you know leading liberal thinkers in the country not as uh Progressive as our people and they sat down and they you know Tred to work out positions that would be comfortable for both sides and we did and out of that you know in terms of climate in terms of the economy in terms of Education in terms of housing came some pretty bold ideas some of which became incorporated into the American Rescue plan but the intelligence of Biden was not to be intimidated or put off by this movement but the try to work with it and to take as many of the ideas that he could comfortably take and he took a lot and those shape the campaign it's not just the governing it's that campaign that was actually won and and just to take a moment on this I think that the task forces are are underestimated by a lot of folks there's not a Consciousness the people that you brought into those positions people like Sarah Nelson uh from the flight attendance Union and Stephanie Kelton an economist and and Alexandria and Alexandri Caso Cortez and others and you put them right next to in the case of Alexandri Ocasio Cortez right next to John krey the former Democratic candidate for president so you were taking people from movements and putting them right in the The Establishment right right and that's significant that's sort of that in itself is a victory of a campaign in a sense because you were able to to say to the Democratic party you got to start listening to these people um and I think what came out of that Not only was the American Rescue plan but things like uh putting far more money into climate related issues than people a few years before would have ever dreamed of you know when I campaigned for President we talk about putting a huge amount of money in rebuilding our infrastructure which clearly is crumbling water roads uh Bridges Etc and you know what has happened over the last last few years is we have passed the largest infrastructure not as large as I want it but a very significant infrastructure bill so the climate that we created which said that millions of Americans uh want bold action they want to think big not small they want transform transformative action not just nibbling around the edges I think that's had some impact on the Biden Administration so let's just talk about Biden let's talk about politics in the broader sense here for just a moment and you have said to me many times that you think of one of the greatest accomplishments of your campaigns as bringing people like Alexandria Casio ctez and others into electoral politics right y convincing him that that that that's actually an avenue that might work and campaigning for them all these other aspects and and I think that's always been a great passion of yours is to to either Inspire or at least encourage a lot of young activists to come into well I think one of the great success stories that does not get talked about a whole lot is the number of extremely uh energetic young Progressive often people of color who are currently uh in the House of Representatives you know I think people say wow there's Alexandria but there are many many more it's not just the squad uh you got Greg Kazar from Texas and you got Corey bush from Missouri and you got you know refa and you got a whole bunch of other people uh and uh way back in 1991 when I was first elected to the house along with people like Maxine Waters we helped form the progressive caucus at that point we had five people the number now is well over 100 and many of them are really strong energetic young progressives and my hope is that those numbers will grow uh my hope is that that will be what the Democratic party is a party of working people many of these people come from working class backgrounds uh people of color young people this is exactly what we want if we're going to transform politics in America but there still is a battle for the soul of the democratic party a battle no it's a war look let's be very clear we write about it in the book I mean we don't have to be tepid about this there are many of the established Democrats who want nothing to do they want to lock the door and I told in this book I think you know we we wrote about I can remember uh you know when we ran all over this country doing event after event often we would schedule them so that our rallies would correspond with Democratic party events so you go to Denver and there'd be a you know state democratic event and we do a rally in Denver as well and the contrast between the two was like day and night we would do a rally there' be 10,000 people out people you know black and white and Latino Asian-American gay and straight the whole Gambit of what America is Young and excited and you go into the Democratic the official the established Democratic thing which is mostly for a fundraiser and be you know middle-age older white guys and women uh who have money lawyers and business people all that and no energy at all it was like day and night and if the Democratic party is going to succeed and right now they're not doing well they're going to have to open that door but it's not going to be we're going to have to push that door open they don't want to open it uh and sometimes I think they'd rather go down with the ship so long as they control that ship rather than bring new people in you know bring workingclass people in you know bring people who are uh maybe don't have a PhD and and a college degree uh bring young people and who may not know all the workings of inside the Beltway but that is the struggle that's going on you open the doors of Theocratic party to ordinary working people young people uh or else you continue to have that kind of money establishment dominating the party and that money establishment is increasingly far removed from the needs of the working class of this country and it's and and and it doesn't one of the realities and we write about in the book is the money establishment doesn't understand how to do a politics that actually connects with people they don't have no they have no clue they can't do it it's sort of horrify if you ask if if you called up the Democratic National Committee today and they're very good at raising money let's let's do it that's what they that's what their function is is to raise money hire Consultants put ads on television but if you say organize you know a uh a rally or a demonstration of eight people eight people we can't find eight people going to go out walk out a pick line we can't they can't they really can't and and which really takes us to the weird situation that you know as we you know become more and more involved in the 2024 campaign it's got to have to be the Progressive Movement that rallies the Grassroots I mean we gotta tell the truth here and then Trump and his people have energized Grassroots support Democrats don't and uh we're going to have to provide that support um for the Democrats if we're going to be successful in defeating Trump so you're a very tech-savvy guy you no I am not but I have smart people around I'm smart enough to know how important uh social media is and you're you're you were way ahead of the and there's one of them right there yeah people running our cameras here but you you built up an office and campaigns that have been you know on all the social media platforms and done all that but one of the things that you've always been dare I say religious about is the idea that you also have to go out and talk to people you have to actually go out what a quaint idea I know you think politicians should actually talk to people John it's been said you're in Washington clearly you don't know how it works here we just raise money and we hire Consultants we do TV ads talk to people I know God I don't know but you in fact we write about it a lot in the book is because it's something that you are actually very passionate about and that is in in back in 2016 again in 2020 in Iowa you literally talked to a measurable portion of the overall electorate Mr re is now my chief of staff was then my campaign manager and she worked me tirelessly in fact I'm thinking of suing her cuz she worked me day after day couldn't get a day off but no the truth is and we've done that in Vermont over the years I've held more Town meetings in Vermont than I think anybody in the history of the state I love doing it and when we were in Iowa to a lesser degree in New Hampshire uh that's what we did and it was an extraordinary experience so we write about it in the book and what was extra look I get a thrill when you hold a rally for 25 30,000 people that's pretty exciting no question about it but I also get enormously excited about having a meeting for two or 300 people and what we saw in Iowa and other states and it was very moving to me and it's something I will never forget is the honesty and the trust that people had in us and coming forward often with tears in their eyes uh talking about I mean we had one meeting on medical debt and people talking about you know you know their family their finances their family were destroyed they couldn't pay their bills uh people I mean just horrible stories about what medical debt the absurdity and the dysfunctionality of our healthare care system I mean hearing people saying well you know I have cancer and I I couldn't pay the I mean being very personal and that's what democracy is supposed to be about what democracy is supposed to be about is you're telling what's going on really really really in your lives to somebody who's prepared to listen and not only listen but take what you say and try to figure out a way to deal with your problem that's what democracy is supposed to be that's why I really I'm a big fan of democracy I mean I love it that's that's what the system is supposed to but it is happening less and less I mean just that Dynamic what's happening now is you do a poll these are the issues you hire a consultant you put some cute 30- second ad up there and hopefully those people Mo over here that's what's going on but uh I get my energy you know people say well Bernie you're an old guy how do you get your energy and all that stuff that's how I get my energy uh talking to a lot of very beautiful people who are willing to share their life experience with me so let me talk about these it you one of the things and and to me it's one of the parts that I like the best about a book and I suppose you can fall in love with your with a book that you're involved in uh but one of the things that was so striking is that you remember so many of the stories of these people that it actually had some sort of deep impact on you and I remember the talking about the bus trip from I think uh Detroit Detroit over to Windsor yeah I mean obviously the issue of the outrageously High Cost of prescription drugs is something that has bothered me for a very long time and a chairman of the senate committee on health and education and lab room we're beginning to deal with it but can you imagine the insanity of somebody who is dealing with diabetes MH having to pay 10 times more for the same exact product that you can get 50 Mi away or whatever it is in Windsor onario so we did this bus trip and you know we're not going to all the dets I mean people are crying woman suddenly buys 10 times more product than she was able to have before for the same amount of price and she literally Tears In Her Eyes um so all of those things I mean for me as a politician where I get my energy from is from the people and if I was unable in fact you know one of the difficulties you have when you're a senator chairman of the committee you can't get out of Capitol Hill enough and Co obviously made it even more comp at but getting your energy from people hearing people seeing so many extraordinary things we in the last couple of years our office were probably involved in 15 or 20 strikes all over the country and we're able to visit a few of them and it's and and talk to people on the phone and just incredibly courageous people uh taking on large corporations uh unbelievable solidarity uh everybody was in it together didn't matter the color of your skin or where you were born just people standing together for the common good and when you see those things with your own eyes and the courage of people standing up to very powerful interest it's very moving it also meet something when a politician shows up right oh God when you actually come there that that's a something I think a lot of politicians don't understand that well that gets into an even deeper issue and and that is the degree to which the whole political system is now alienated from the needs of ordinary people so I'll tell you a story I don't even know if we mentioned in the book or not um we went to Grand Rapids Cedar well no wasn't Iowa was in uh Battle Creek Battle Creek Michigan right and there was a big strike going on there and I had asked the president uh to write a letter I was going to give the I led the rally I said you know write write a nice letter telling them you support their strike and the letter they ended up writing was not the greatest letter in the world to be honest with you and I was hesitant whether or not to read it or not you know it wasn't really all there and I read it you know it was being pro-union and all that stuff it was it was okay and people erupted in cheers what did I learn what they were saying is oh my God the president of the United States knows that there's a strike on here on what we're going through and that's your point as well taken uh so often issues of enormous consequence quence are ignored by political leaders because they don't want to get in trouble they don't want to antagonize their rich friends their campaign contributors and the result of all of that stuff is that people say does anybody in Washington know that I exist do they know what's going on in my life and those are the conditions that lead will lead to the demise of democracy if we don't turn it around and in the book we reference we reference Roosevelt FDR quite a bit in the book y and and there is a reference I hope I get it right here a line where somebody asked somebody when Roosevelt's motor cave was going by and somebody guy was crying or was all excited and the reporter said to him wow do do you know the president and he says no I don't know the president but he knows me yeah that's right and that is you know 60% not that I want to throw out a lot of Statistics because I do that too often but 60% of the American people are living paycheck to paycheck I grew up in a family that live paycheck to paycheck so I know a little bit about that but I am not sure that many of my colleagues understand what the stress is the pain is in living paycheck to paycheck the choices that families have to make um you know whether you buy food or whether you pay for health care you know your landlord raises the rent where do you take your kid what can you do you know what school are you going to put your kid in there is a huge gap uh between what many people in our country are experiencing and what goes on here in in politics let me as we talk about this let's come back to this current moment the 2024 campaign and and and also policymaking at this time it seems to me that there's been a great gap between the response of the great mass of Americans or an awful lot of Americans to what's happening in Gaza right and what's happening in the administration well in Congress in general and the administration yeah absolutely uh that is a very good example of the degree to which people here in DC live within the bubble um all over this country whether you're a progressive whether you're a moderate whether you're a conservative you look at these pictures and you've seen these pictures of children literally starving to death right now in Gaza and uh you understand that the United States has provided netanyahu's government with billions and billions of dollars and there's a bill that I voted against that passed the Senate providing another $10 billion for unfed military aid people all over the country are saying why is the United States complicit why are we actually funding somebody who is blockading restrictions at the border so that the trucks the thousands of trucks that we need to get through to feed hungry children he's stopping them and we are giving him more money how insane is that in Washington DC there's another world but I do want to tell you that I think it's beginning to change you know we're just going to sent a letter to the president uh with uh I can't eight or nine uh Senators on board that's saying it says very clearly Israel is violating the law the law is clear foreign assistance Act uh any country that blocks us humanitarian Aid is in violation of the law and they should not continue to get Aid and I think more and more people are coming to that position but your essential point that where we started is American people are feeling one way young people in overwhelming numbers people of color feeling very strongly about the Injustice the inhumanity the horror of what's going on in Washington living in another world well that's a good place to close this segment to to bring us back to we were talking about the Democratic party a little bit and doesn't that really get to the heart of the challenge for the Democratic party obviously the Republican part is going to be what it is but the question is will the Democratic party be a party that actually listens to the mass movements and to the the people who are its base um or not because if it doesn't then at some point the connection gets broken right the the connection is Rally that Coalition becomes much the connection is significantly broken already I mean I don't think most people have faith Democratic part is going to do very much um but you know people also see it as a far far better alternative than Mr Trump and the Republican party but you know again getting back to what I said a few minutes ago um will the Democratic party open their doors will they really be a party of the working class of this country trying to address the needs of the working class Having the courage to take on the billion class well it's hard to do it when you get a lot of money from the billionaire class isn't it you know which takes us to campaign Finance reform etc etc um but that's where we are it's funny you mentioned the billionaire class that's our next segment good so we'll close off here and uh for folks who are listening to podcast or or viewing uh stick with us we'll be back uh to talk more about oligarchy and the billionaire class if you'd like a copy of the book please make a donation of $12 or more or whatever you can afford to my campaign and we will get you a copy you can do this at Bernie sanders.com sbbook again that's Bernie sanders.com book thank you very much

Channel: Bernie Sanders

Views: 57,123

Keywords: bernie sanders, 2020, election, democratic primary, bernie 2020, bernie, joe biden, elizabeth warren

Id: DBEpS9YjH1U

Length: 29min 47sec (1787 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2024