Bernie Sanders: 'The American People Do Not Want An Oligarchic Form Of Government'

Forbes Breaking News

4 months ago

At a "Fight Oligarchy" rally in Portland, Maine, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called for progressive change in the U.S.

Transcript

00:00I have traveled all over this country.

00:07We have been to 15 states, and now I can say from Maine to California.

00:18And a lot of states in between.

00:21And we've talked to over 300,000 people.

00:30And what I can tell you without any fear of contradiction

00:34is the American people do not want an oligarchic form of government.

00:52They do not want an authoritarian form of government.

01:00They do not want to live under a kleptocracy

01:08where a president gets rich by being president.

01:11And they sure as hell are sick and tired

01:20of the ongoing war of the rich

01:23against the working class of this country.

01:25This is an unprecedented and, in fact, dangerous moment

01:40in American history.

01:44And we have got to respond in an unprecedented way.

01:50And the way we respond

02:00is to build the kind of strong, progressive, grassroots movement

02:06the likes of which this country has never seen.

02:09Now, the Trump playbook is

02:33is not complicated.

02:38He does what demagogues historically have always done

02:44and are doing today.

02:45He's not the only one.

02:47And what they do is in a nation and a world in trouble

02:51where people are hurting,

02:53where people are saying,

02:54what's going on?

02:55Why am I struggling to put food on the table?

02:59Why am I struggling to pay for rent or child care or medical care?

03:07He says, I know the answer.

03:09And the answer is it's them.

03:11It's that group of people,

03:13that minority, politically powerless group of people.

03:17They are the cause of all of your problems.

03:20Nothing new there.

03:20This has gone on.

03:22This is what demagogues have done forever.

03:26In Europe, it was Jews.

03:27It was gypsies.

03:29In this country, it's been the blacks, the gays.

03:31You, David.

03:32Always a powerless minority.

03:34And then you blame them for all of the problems.

03:38Now, I was, sadly, at Trump's inauguration.

03:46And I sat in the front row,

03:48not any further away than where you guys are.

03:50And what I saw on that day,

03:54something I'll never forget,

03:56standing right beside Trump,

03:58right behind him,

04:00were the three wealthiest people in this country.

04:07Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, and Mr. Zuckerberg.

04:11And then, sitting behind them,

04:18like 15 other billionaires,

04:22that Trump had nominated to head up major federal agencies.

04:28And honestly,

04:30what I was thinking then,

04:32I'm not a great historian,

04:33but I really was thinking about American history,

04:37and I was thinking back

04:38to Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg.

04:41And many of you remember that a few days after that terrible,

04:45terrible battle,

04:47that enormously important battle against slavery,

04:50when so many soldiers died,

04:53Abraham Lincoln, a few days later,

04:55goes to the battlefield.

04:56And he looks around them,

04:57and he said,

04:58these men have not died in vain.

05:01And we have a vision of America

05:04that we're not going to give up on.

05:06And that vision is

05:08a government of the people.

05:11Of the people.

05:13Of the people.

05:14That is our vision.

05:16And when I was sitting there

05:34in the inaugural,

05:36looking at all of these billionaires,

05:38what I was thinking is

05:39their vision is very different.

05:43The Trump idea of government

05:45is a government of the billionaire class,

05:48by the billionaire class,

05:51and we ain't going to let that happen.

Bernie Sanders: 'The American People Do Not Want An Oligarchic Form Of Government'

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