If you've ever heard Bernie Sanders speak, this
probably sounds familiar. Now is the time for a political revolution! Political revolution! Political, revolution! He talks a lot about big change. Political revolution. But recently, I found some old footage of
Bernie Sanders that I didn’t really know what to make of. I came across some archival tape of his cable
access program that he ran when he was mayor of Burlington. Here, I'll just play it for you. Also, our library. We have a beautiful library. When I look at this tape, I see him talking
about extremely boring things. A lot of people don’t realize that Bernie
Sanders is a veteran politician, veteran elected official. He has always maintained this dual-track view,
these very high aspirations, very ideological… Political revolution which is going to transform
America. with the idea that day to day you need to
be a competent politician who does things. Burlington will soon have a beautiful downtown
supermarket. Most political journalism, whether it's pro-Bernie
or anti-Bernie, tends to focus on that first track, the ideology. Bernie Sanders’ platform is really pie in
the sky. An ideologue without a lot of substance.
He is really trying to inspire people to be involved in what he calls a movement more
than a campaign. But the best way to predict how someone will
act in the future, is to look what they’ve allready done. Bernie Sanders has a record. So, what does it tell us about what kind of
president he'd make, and his odds of getting there in the first place? A lot of the time when you see people make
the case for Sanders, they just talk about those big ideas. ...complete change of politics in America. ...a revolution of spirit, a revolution of priorities. Some people love those big ideas, but
others don’t. And what I said to them is, look at when
he was a mayor. He didn't try to abolish private businesses
in the city. He tried to make the tax code more progressive
and he tried to provide more services. He is aware of how to operate in these kinds
of spaces. The gentleman from Vermont is recognized for five
minutes. When Bernie Sanders has to cast votes not
in perfect alignment with what he says his principles are… What happens in those situations? There are three kinds of Bernie Sanders votes
in Congress. One is the sort of courageous dissent. The invasion of Iraq, that's going to pass. He takes a stand against it. I will vote against the unilateral invasion
and occupation of Iraq. The other is the kind of big legislative package
that everybody agrees to. And some members, Bernie among them, often
cast dissenting votes there just to say, no, I want to hold out for my pure vision. But then there's the third kind. There's a progressive bill where Democrats
need his vote for it to pass. And it may not align with exactly all of his
principles. You look at the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Sanders, aye. The stimulus at the beginning of the Obama administration. Mr. Sanders, aye Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform.
A bill, in which in a number of ways moves us forward. If there were 80 Bernie Sanders’ in the
Senate, he probably would've passed a different bill. But he's not blind to the fact that incremental
progress is real progress. One area that I don’t hear a lot about in
the primary is foreign policy. Where does Bernie stand in terms of America's
role in the world? Sanders has a distinctive approach to foreign
policy from the other candidates in the field. He's been critical, not just of the specifics,
but of the sort of nature of American military posture around the world. No more B-2 bombers, no more "Star Wars."
Let’s make the quality products we need. Let’s invest in American industry. No, I won't yield. For years, we have loved Saudi Arabia, our
wonderful ally. The only problem is that the people that run
that country are murderous thugs. He has raised, I think, sharp and necessary
questions about the nature of the U.S. alliance with Israel, with Saudi Arabia. Donald Trump and Barack Obama have both spoken
about their desire to not be mired in so many Middle Eastern wars, but they haven't taken
the kind of tough steps that would actually generate change there. And I think Sanders might. So thinking about a potential match-up between
Bernie and Trump in the general election. What's the affirmative case for Bernie in
that situation? If you look at the numbers from 2016. Not only did Trump lose the popular vote,
but he got only 46 percent. If you could unify all the non-Republicans. So the libertarian voters, the Green voters
and the Democrats, you would beat Trump and you would beat him easily. And Bernie has a track record of doing that
kind of thing. Bernie is sometimes felt by Democrats to be
a divisive force in the party. But I think another way of looking at it is
that Bernie speaks for people who are not necessarily into the Democratic Party. If you combine people who love the Democratic
Party, people who, you know, post Nancy Pelosi memes, with Bernie's people. Then, you have a unified anti-Trump force. Bernie is beating Trump in the key swing states. We know these are places in the upper Midwest
where NAFTA is unpopular. I happen to believe that our trade policies
over the years have been a disaster for workers in this country. Bernie is somebody who sometimes attracts
complaints for privileging economics over other things. But I do think that that's a winning electoral
strategy. One of the things that Mayor Pete, for example,
and Biden too, talk a lot about is this sort of like sense of a return to unity and hope. I refuse to accept the notion that we can
never have cooperation again. We have been told by some that you must either
be for a revolution or you are for the status quo. I think Sanders’ is view on this, which
I think is correct, is that politics is a location of struggle. None of these Democratic candidates are going
to be able to fully deliver on all their promises. There are going to have to be deals made,
compromises made. That's the political process, but you need
to be able to bring people along with you. And the question is... And that's something that I think Sanders
is going to be able to do. He has this slogan, And that, you know, is in part about like,how
does politics work? Nobody is so amazing that if everybody then
just walks away that all these problems are going to be solved. What we need as a society is a politically
engaged populace. We don't know, if Bernie brings a bunch
of his younger supporters into the electoral process, he boosts youth turnout. Will that effect last? But it's guaranteed not to work if you don't
try.
