https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBgl7n10CS0
Transcript
thanks very much for joining me these
are unprecedented moments in modern
American history and we have got to
respond in unprecedented ways and
together that is exactly what we're
doing our grassroots political
revolution is aggressively taking on
Trump and the oligarchy and we are
making real progress over the last eight
weeks I've been to 11 states nebraska
Iowa Wisconsin Michigan Nevada Arizona
Colorado California Utah Idaho and
Montana held 17 rallies and have spoken
to over
250,000 people most of these rallies
were held in districts that are
represented by Republican members of
Congress
interestingly many of the people who
showed up at these rallies were
independents or Republicans and not just
Democrats representative Alexandria
Accaziocortez accompanied me at the most
recent fighting oligarchy events and she
did a fantastic job we are continuing to
hit the road this time I'll be going to
Pennsylvania on Thursday I will be doing
a Mayday celebration with Pennsylvania
trade unionists in Philadelphia on
Friday we'll be in Harrisburg for an
evening event and on Saturday morning
we'll be in Lehigh Valley congressman
Chris Deluzio will be joining us for
these events if any of you live in these
communities please drop by we would love
to see you there but it's not just about
the rallies that we're focusing on as
important as they are please understand
that we are not just parachuting into
communities and then walking away we're
doing much more than that we are working
hard to build a sustainable progressive
grassroots
infrastructure mostly focusing now on
marginal congressional districts that
have Republican members of Congress we
have already hired local organizers in
Nebraska Iowa Wisconsin and Michigan
with more to come these organizers are
putting together grassroots coalitions
with great success they have already
organized well-attended meetings where
community members come together to
discuss local concerns over 400 folks
were out in Michigan last week and over
300 attended a meeting in Wisconsin they
are also organizing door-to-door
canvasing setting up phone banks and
engaging in social media bottom line
here we are not going to let the
Republican representatives who prefer to
hide from their constituents escape
their
responsibilities shortterm as many of
you know there's a so-called
reconciliation bill coming before
Congress in the not too distant future
this horrific Trump legislation would
provide a trillion dollars in tax breaks
for the 1% while making massive cuts to
Medicaid nutrition housing and other
programs that working families
desperately need this bill has got to be
defeated and our efforts are putting
pressure on vulnerable Republicans to
vote no longer term we want to see
Republicans in these districts defeated
in 2026 and Democrats regaining control
over the House if we can accomplish that
we'll be taking a giant step forward in
stopping Trump's destructive
agenda further as many of you may know
and this is long-term thinking we've
just issued a call for progressives
throughout the country to run for office
from school board to city council to
state legislature to the United States
Congress the response has been
extraordinary
over 5,000 people from virtually every
state in the country have expressed an
interest in getting involved politically
some are interested in running as
progressive Democrats others as
independents we'll be doing a Zoom call
with many of them this Wednesday evening
in order to begin providing them with
the guidance that new candidates often
require if you are interested in the
possibility of running for office
yourself please go to bernie
sanders.com/run that's bernie
sanders.com/run and you can get
information as to how you can
proceed not
surprisingly the establishment has taken
note of what we are doing
republicans including Trump and Musk
tried to downplay the size of our
rallies according to Musk those who
attended were mostly paid
organizers really not quite true while
members of the Democratic establishment
have occasionally applauded our efforts
on the road a number of them and their
corporate media friends are becoming
increasingly nervous about the progress
we're making and you may have heard some
of this recently uh in newspapers or
radio or tvu or in social media these
establishment figures are exclaiming
that progressives shouldn't be taken too
seriously that we as progressives are
too far-left we are extreme we are out
of touch with American
society none of these establishment
critiques are new i've heard them for a
long long time but they are worth
discussing so let me take a minute to do
that according to these establishment
politicians analysts media pundits and
wealthy campaign contri contributors the
future of the Democratic Party lies in
moderation we shouldn't be rocking the
boat we shouldn't be bringing forth bold
ideas to address the crisis facing
working families we shouldn't be talking
about oligarchy about one guy owning
more wealth than the bottom 53% of
American households can't talk about
that we shouldn't be talking about
massive income and wealth inequality and
the reality that the top 1% now owns
more wealth than the bottom 90% we
shouldn't be talking about the
unprecedented concentration of corporate
ownership that exists and that a handful
of large Wall Street firms are the major
stockholders in virtually every large
corporation in America we shouldn't be
talking about the need to grow the trade
union movement so that workers can
negotiate for decent wages and benefits
and let us let us never talk about a
corrupt campaign finance system that
allows billionaires in both parties to
control the political and legislative
process oh and of course we shouldn't be
talking about corporate control over the
media according to these leaders of the
Democratic establishment the path
forward get ready for this is to
continue doing exactly what they have
been doing for the last 10 years in
other words tell the world how bad
Donald Trump is while continuing to
defend a rigged and corrupt economic and
political system that makes the rich
richer while working families fall
further and further
behind well we disagree with that
approach of course we will continue to
work with Democrats and anybody else to
help lead the way in exposing Trump's
pathological lying his kleptocratic
behavior which enriches himself and his
family his disastrous economic policies
which benefit the rich at the expense of
everyone
else his authoritarianism and his
contempt for the Constitution is foreign
policy which is alienating us from
longtime friends and allies we will
continue to do that and
more but that is not
enough from one end of our country to
the other in red states blue states
purple states working families young
people seniors the poor people of color
people in cities and people in rural
America and Americans of all stripes are
desperately looking for a new and bold
vision for America's future
the status quo is not working and cannot
and should not be defended let me repeat
that the status quo is not working and
cannot and should not be
defended simply stated in the richest
country in the history of the world
where our productive capabilities are
exploding with new technologies every
man woman and child in our country can
and should have a decent standard of
living this is not radical utopian
thinking this is not far-left this is
what we can and should be achieving this
is what we should be fighting for what
is radical and unthinkable is that in in
the year 2025 in the United States of
America 60% of our people live paycheck
to paycheck and we have some of the
highest rates of childhood and senior
poverty of any major country on earth
what is radical is that we have more
income and wealth inequality than we've
ever had before and
unbelievably one man owns more wealth
than the bottom 53% of households what
is radical is that we are the only major
country not to guarantee health care for
all as a human right or have paid family
and medical leave what is radical is
that 800,000 of our fellow Americans are
homeless and that over 20 million
households spend over half of their
limited incomes for housing what is
radical is that we are spending close to
$1 trillion a year on the
military and many billions in weaponry
for an extremist Netanyahu government in
Israel that has waged a horrific illegal
and immoral war against the people of
Gaza
what is radical is that our democracy is
being undermined not just by Donald
Trump but by billionaire campaign
contributors and a corrupt campaign
finance
system the American people desperately
want this country to move forward in a
new direction
economically politically socially and
environmentally just as a matter of fact
a recent survey found that threearters
of Americans believe the American
political and economic system need major
major
changes so to our establishment friends
in the Democratic
Party no we will not maintain the status
quo we will not shrink from big ideas we
are prepared to take on the big money
interests who dominate our society and
we know that the American people are
with us in that fight and we should be
enormously proud that we are helping to
shape that
path but let us be clear the road
forward will not be easy we are taking
on the oligarchs and their unlimited
wealth
we're taking on corporate America and
the media that they own we're taking on
Donald Trump and the Republican party
and we're taking on the fossilized
section of the Democratic Party which
cannot shake loose from their top-down
politics their wealthy campaign donors
and their super
PACs in this pivotal moment in American
and world history when the stakes are so
high for our country and the entire
planet we should not underestimate the
difficult challenges that we face but
that should not make us
pessimistic if we stand together we have
the power to create a government and an
economy that works for all of us not
just a handful of billionaires
as Nelson Mandela one of the great
liberation leaders in modern history
reminded us quote "It always seems
impossible until it is done." End quote
let's do it thank you very much
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