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US POLITICS SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS with AOC FIGHT THE OLIGARCHY WITH BERNIE AND AOC: MONTANA PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/live/5pst2Y7_OlA Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I believe the Sanders / AOC series of events around 'red' America in April 2025 were a huge success in their own right ... but less so as part of a mainstream surge in the popularity of the Democratic Party as a whole. This is a huge problem for the Democrats I can see the problem ... but I don't have much of an idea how to solve the problem that needs fixing ... I cannot even describe the problem in useful terms. I have spent most of my adult life working on a variety of problem solving assignments. Peter Burgess
FIGHT THE OLIGARCHY WITH BERNIE AND AOC: MONTANA Bernie Sanders 1.1M subscribers ... 94,149 views ... 10K liks Streamed live on Apr 16, 2025 Fighting Oligarchy Tour in Missoula, Montana ... Aoril 16th 2025 Transcript 0:05 tv station looking Open up my heart to all jealousy that bites moving through the push it 1:01 afraid of 1:08 mistakes and if you want it come and get 1:17 it love that I given 1:36 you let go your head 1:41 [Music] 1:49 alone 1:58 [Music] 2:10 kicking through the leaves where 2:18 it turn [Music] 2:28 Stairil 2:56 Enjoy 3:02 your heart enjoy your feeling enjoy [Music] your feeling [Music] babalone alone 4:04 [Music] sunday [Applause] afternoon feeling like a and the rust 5:03 do you [Applause] laugh only What I things he said to me 6:15 I still [Applause] only [Music] [Applause] yesterday to 7:21 Hello once again my friends we have filled the house to capacity thank you Montana thousands more are waiting outside to get in oh don't worry we haven't forgotten about him and neither has the senator nor the congresswoman but first please welcome to the stage the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants CWA Sarah Nelson [Applause] 8:04 good afternoon Missoula my name is Sarah Nelson i'm the president of the Association of Flight Attendants CWA we are 55,000 strong at 20 airlines right now United Airlines flight attendants are fighting for an industryleading contract that's long overdue and our union is fighting the greedy business model that keeps some flight attendants paid at 45% less doing the same job these are flight attendants like the flight attendants in Toronto who safely evacuated 80 people from a plane after it crash landed and turned upside down we are aviation's first responders and we are also proud that 9:04 29,000 Delta flight attendants are organizing right now to join our union and get their first union contract our fight is the same fight as the entire working class ever since Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers in 1981 unions have been on the decline removing the one check we all have on corporate greed they've stolen our money and our time they've pushed us out of our homes into medical debt and attacked our right to an education [Applause] income inequality is worse today than it was just before the Great 10:02 Depression so picture this if you stack $100 bills do any of us in this room know what those look like but if you stack $100 bills high enough to reach one of our flights at 35,000 ft that's nearly seven miles in the air it would only be enough $100 bills to equal just 3% of Elon Musk's worth that's after he took the hit from the take down Tesla actions i should say that's the take [Applause] down breaking our government by firing federal workers including veterans 11:03 canceling union contracts for almost a million workers dismantling our public post office that's older than our constitution and provides runs on not a single tax dollar and provides critical connectivity for our rural areas [Applause] delivery of medicine to our seniors at equality in price for all Americans he's stealing our private data and pushing to privatize everything even the currency we use the US dollar it appears he answers to no one but that's not true he answers to the workers at X Tesla and SpaceX when they form their union 12:06 he thinks he thinks that dismantling the NLRB will stop workers from organizing but he's [Music] wrong a 100 years ago workers didn't have legal rights they organized and built solidarity set their demands conducted mass strikes against the coal barons the textile industry the auto companies and at our docks there were general strikes in cities across our country that's the working class power that had corporations begging for stability with labor law it gave FDR the power to sign into law social security workplace safety wage and hour protections the minimum wage and the 13:02 right to join a union so take this in musk and the other oligarchs have money and control but we have the power nothing nothing nothing nothing can move without our labor and it's time to exercise our power in a united working class 14:04 so Montana turn to the people around you commit to call or text each other say 'Hey there's a Tesla picket let's meet up there.' Or 'I heard there's a picket line with striking workers let's both grab some friends and meet up there.' A couple of events and you're an activist bring 10 friends and you're an organizer build your union you don't need certification or a union card to be a union solidarity is a force stronger than gravity it lifts lifts us up and we need to get ready for a general strike 15:19 reject every attempt to distract or divide us my church has three words on the wall god is love no one is born with racism sexism or bigotry in their heart these are the tactics of the boss to keep us from exercising our power and claiming our fair share everything good we have is because people fought and died for our rights 16:01 social justice is tied directly to economic justice on Dr king's last night alive in Memphis he told the crowd of striking sanitation workers that he had been to the mountaintop he had seen the promised land he said 'I may not get there with you but we as a people will get [Applause] there.' Dr king knew that Dr king knew that no one person or one leader can do it alone with those words he deputized all of us to take up the fight for 17:03 freedom and now now it's up to us Montana it's our time to fight with nonviolent action it's our time to strike it's our time to build our union for a good job with a living wage a decent a decent home healthare as a human right a good a good education without a death sentence the right to read and speak the truth keep working journalists the right to protest our government and love the immigrants and 18:01 Native Americans who have always made it great a world a world where we can breathe the air drink the water and hike run swim and ski in our parks a time and space for all of us to live grow and love build your union and now and now it's time to hear from a leader who understands the power we have to shape the world we want to live in [Music] 19:00 six years ago when she shocked the world by winning an election against the establishment One of the first things she did was ask for a meeting with us she didn't call us to her office she came to our union office that doesn't normally happen in Washington but she's from the working class and she knows who matters she's walked more picket lines in the last six years than most Congress members walk in a lifetime she knows that if you start in the workplace the politics will follow she knows who she's fighting for and who has the 20:05 power welcome to the stage my friend and our fighter Alexandria [Applause] Cortez [Applause] [Applause] let's hear everybody how are we doing [Music] missoula oh my goodness thank you all so so much for welcoming me and I mean I just have to say again um Sarah Nelson is one of the most 21:01 badass women in America as a labor leader as a champion and she knows better than anyone the power of working people together and so thank you thank you Sarah and thank you all of you for making the effort for being here today we are at capacity here 7,500 7600 here in this arena right now another 1,500 people outside at least something very very special is happening here today Montana and I want to thank you so much thank you thank you thank you my name is Alexandria some of you may know me as AOC and from the bottom of my heart 22:05 thank you for welcoming me here to Missoula flying in today you just saw how beautiful this state is it is just breathtaking and it's a state worth fighting for you all are a people worth fighting for and we are going to win [Applause] we are all here together because we share in the frustration and heartache that comes from watching those in power actively tear down or refuse to fight for everyday working Americans like us and we are here together because an extreme concentration of power greed and corruption is taking over this country like never 23:04 before oligarchy and we must acknowledge the terrifying moment that we are in right now and that what we are hearing and seeing with our own eyes is in fact happening we are watching as our neighbors students and friends are being fired targeted and disappeared it is real people we love are being targeted and harassed for being LGBTQ our co-workers US citizens and immigrants alike are being disappeared off the street by men in vans with no uniform [Applause] educators are being fired for teaching 24:01 American history accurately and activists are being detained with no charge or evidence for using their First Amendment rights especially if they are using those First Amendment rights to speak up for Palestinians and to end the war in Gaza in fact in In fact the Trump administration admits that it has jailed a young husband and father from New York Mahmood Khalil without any evidence or charge of a crime they the Trump administration admits that they have thrown him in a cell 25:05 thousands of miles away in Louisiana from his family because he attended a protest and that they are detaining him for the content of his speech and nothing more donald Trump's detention of Mahmud Khalil for his speech is anti- American and we demand his release along with the release of Rumesa Ozurk who he is also jailing for writing an op-ed in her school paper and we also demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia who's in El Salvador this is America we demand our rights we demand our freedoms our due process and we don't just point a finger and lock 26:04 someone up without their day in court never and we demand this because we do have power in this moment all of us do everyday people do and Missoula it will never be just our institutions or officials or politicians alone that uphold our democracy it will always be the people the masses who refuse to comply with authoritarian regimes who are last who our last and strongest defense of our country and our freedoms we know that a better world is possible and we are willing to do 27:03 something about it but to get there we need to be honest about how we got to where we are right now because this moment didn't come out of nowhere it has been a long time coming the destruction of our rights and democracy is directly tied to the growing and extreme wealth inequality that has been building in America for years it is not a coincidence that billionaires like Elon Musk dumped dumped billions into this election to support Donald Trump and he sure as hell isn't doing it out of charity and we saw it right here just last just last election right here in Montana the crypto lobby and dark money 28:03 funneling tons and tons of money trying to buy elections right here in the state of Montana and time after time we've seen how our government and laws are more responsive to corporations and lobbyists than to the will of everyday people and voters and we also know that the agenda of dark money to keep our wages low and to loot our public goods like social security and Medicare to give to the rich is deeply unpopular with the people across party across background but just look at what Republicans have been quietly doing in Congress voting to advance cuts on hundreds of billions of dollars for Medicaid and veterans benefits so that 29:01 they can take that money and give it to their donors in the form of tax cuts and sweetheart government contracts to companies like SpaceX and you know who from Montana voted for that by the way both of your senators Steve Dan and Tim and your members Ryan Zinci and Troy Downing they know that that's not what you want they know that it is deeply unpopular to chip away at some of the only social safety nets that people have they know it hurts you and they know but they are not there to serve working families in Montana they are there to serve themselves and the billionaires who pay them but they know that the only chance that they have to get away with such a deeply unpopular agenda is to try to 30:04 stoke deep divisions along race identity and culture to keep us fighting and distracted and this has been the big money playbook not just now but for decades and that is why Donald Trump is not an aberration he is the logical inevitable conclusion of an American political system dominated by corporate and dark money and if we are to defeat him Montana we must defeat the system that created him money in politics is the hands of oligarchy we are at a crossroads Montana we can either have extreme wealth 31:01 inequality with the toxic division and corruption that it requires to survive or we can have a fair economy for working people along with the democracy and freedoms that uphold it oligarchy or democracy but we cannot have both i grew up in a workingclass family my mom cleaned houses and my dad worked on a small business my parents worked themselves to the bone so that my brother and I could have a shot at the American dream and for a moment there it looked like we were going to make it we had a home bills were getting a little less stressful to pay and I was doing well in public school and what may have looked like a modest life to others was a dream come true for us and suddenly suddenly when I was a teenager 32:07 my dad was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer and after a long fight we lost him and my dad actually passed away in September of 2008 just as the economy crashed in the Great Recession and millions of jobs across the country vanished it felt like the little world of our family was falling apart just as the larger world was falling apart too and overnight my mom was left alone to figure out how to provide and put two kids through school keep our house pay off medical bills all on a house cleaner salary and that Montana is how I became a waitress to help my family make ends meet because it was millions of [Applause] 33:05 us because it was millions of us innocent working families who paid the price in the economic crash while the billionaires and thieves who defrauded our financial system got off richer than ever before and not a single one of them went to jail that is the story that Republicans mock not mine but all of ours when they say that a waitress or a working person is unqualified to serve in Congress but the fact is Montana many of us are far more qualified to know what real life is actually like than any of them ever will i tell this story not because it is special but because of how common and 34:06 disturbingly normal it all is while the details may differ so many of us know what it feels like for life to be one bad day one piece of bad news one major setback from everything falling apart and I'm here to tell you today Montana that we don't have to live like this anymore we can make a new world Montana a better country where we fight for the dignity of all people and it looks like living wages Missoula it looks like stable housing Montana it looks like guaranteed healthare for all people America and it looks like respect for all our differences no matter who we are or where we come from 35:05 oligarchy or democracy and we are here today because we choose democracy we choose freedom and that means that we choose to out organize the oligarchy we must do away with the power of big money and that is why even as a waitress with a longshot campaign I decided right then and there that I would never take money from lobbyists and corporations and I never will you know when I first got to Congress I was genuinely shocked by how the place worked that's right even having run against dark money in the first place the everyday influence and 36:04 corruption was astonishing you know even in Congress today they have somehow conditioned themselves to believe that it's normal for members of Congress who have sworn an oath to the American people to somehow day trade individual stocks and make millions with the sensitive information we are entrusted with for the purpose of governing i ask you this how can anyone possibly make an objective vote on healthcare energy or even war when their personal money is tied up in pharmaceutical companies oil and gas or defense company stocks you can't and we just saw this play out this week with Trump's corrupt and disastrous tariff scheme 37:02 i hope that all of us see now that this whole tariff shuffle had nothing to do with manufacturing like they claimed and it had everything to do with manipulating the markets so they could quietly enrich their friends who bought the dip before reversing it all in the morning missoula what I'm about to say is a matter of fact and not debate donald Trump is a criminal he was he was found guilty of 34 felony counts of fraud liable for sexual abuse of course he is lying and manipulating the stock market too and I tell you Donald Trump when you want to look for the rapists and criminals in this country you can start by looking in the [Music] 38:12 mirror he's there to make himself rich as well as the billionaires who scratch his back and the members of Congress who trade with him but he's not there for you or for us or for the working people of Montana not one bit and to be clear I don't even care what party you are Democrat or Republican it doesn't matter what position one holds members of Congress holding and trading individual stock is wrong it is corrosive it is destructive and it must be banned now earlier this year I had the privilege of being named to the Energy 39:02 and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives energy and Commerce Committee is one of the most powerful committees in all of Congress it governs twothirds of the American economy energy healthc care trade manufacturing communications technology you name it and for years lobbyists fought to keep me off of that committee because they don't like what they don't [Applause] control but Interesting thing happened the day that I was named on that committee all of a sudden the phones in my office were ringing off the hook and the email my our email inboxes were so full from hearing from every corporate lobbyist in all of Washington suddenly they all wanted to be my best friend but you know what Missoula because of 40:03 your support because of you all showing up because you allow me to not take a dime in corporate money you free me to say no you free me to fight for Medicare for all you free me to fight for living wages and we must free more as well because not everyone is so lucky i have seen firsthand how these groups bully and pressure members of Congress they threaten to take money away or to spend it against them if they don't do what they want and what they want is for our lives to be as expensive as possible on the lowest possible wage and it trickles down to how life feels for us as working people i want us all to understand that this constant pressure that we feel in our day-today lives of the water rising 41:04 up to our throats of the impossibility to afford anything easily of the fear of speaking up or being who we are in public of the bitter divisions driven more by online algorithms and the truth or the crumbling of our rights and protections understand that this right now is what it feels like to be governed by billionaires not someday not theoretically not in the future right now and the first step is to open our eyes to that because of course it is a system that depends on division to enable inequality that will favor a president who is the best at dividing us and the most skilled at corruption big money is how we got Donald Trump and his whole presidency began with launching tools for bribery 42:04 meme coins and cryptocurrencies to fleece normal people and move money in the dark extortion settlements from media companies and law firms who gladly pay the price trump himself removed duly elected officials from the chamber of the inauguration including Republican ones to make room for who he knows is really in charge the unelected billionaires who stood behind him and they all have one central economic mission to make billionaires richer at the expense of the rest of us so it does not surprise us that their first economic mission has been to target Medicaid Medicare and Social Security to fire our federal workers and and abandon our veterans for hundreds of billions of dollars in budget cuts so that they can hand that money off to their donor class 43:05 [Applause] montana i know sometimes that it can look impossible out here for the Republicans to be defeated but that is not true it is simply not true and from the waitress who is now speaking to you all today I can tell you impossible is nothing miracles start with mustard seeds and that is what Each and every one of you represent today small miracles of faith in ourselves in each other and in the refusal to give up you know just coming in here um just coming in here today and flying in we got some very interesting news senator Sanders and I got some very interesting news here montana and Missoula this is our last stop of the week after crisscrossing the entire country we had 44:06 12,000 people in Idaho one of the most Republican states in the entire country we had 20,000 people in Salt Lake City Utah we started off with 36,000 people in Los Angeles but last night further north in California in Folsam which is also rep uh represented by Republicans we had 30,000 people show up prior to that we had visited Colorado uh we had visited Nevada we visited Arizona and on the way here we got a very interesting piece of news which is that some of those Republican members some of those Republican House members that we had visited they just led a 45:06 letter warning the Republican leadership saying 'We we don't know if we can vote for Medicaid cuts now that's you Missoula that's you Montana that's you Colorado that's you Arizona that's you California that's you the people we got them on their back foot we got them scared we got them running but our job is not done and we will rally every corner of the United States of America until we save Medicaid and Medicare for every American until we defend Social Security and we tell them who's really in charge 46:01 in this country so we are here for the long haul and we will not stop until they actually vote no we're not going to let them trick us with gestures and strongly worded letters i want to see the no vote on the floor that's the only thing we will accept but we are here for the long haul Montana because we are here for the school boards and the community associations we're here for the small business groups and the town councils for public art and gestures of inclusion and we will build from there so folks you know what that means we will Start working now to give your to 47:02 give your Republican representatives the boot and replace them with a brawling Democrat who will stand up for the working people of Montana and beyond elections our task is to build community block associations volunteer groups advocacy organizations PTAs because community is the most powerful building block we have to defeat authoritarianism and root out corruption this is the path to guaranteeing healthcare to every American this is the path to establishing a living wage to tackle skyrocketing rents and mortgages to take on the climate crisis and establish a country where the American dream is actually possible for all of us 48:06 so I'll end where I began we might come from different places but we share so many of the same experiences power to the people so to all of you who came here today unsure of whether or not this is where you belong I want to say that you do no matter if you have all the right words to say no matter your race religion gender identity or status no matter even if you disagree with me on some things but if you are willing to fight for someone you don't know you are welcome here if you are willing to fight for working people regardless of who they are how they identify or where they come from you are welcome 49:03 here because here everyone is valued but we have to stand together we cannot be tempted to turn in our neighbors or be fooled into thinking that we are really that much different than the trans kid who wants to be accepted at school or be duped into believing that we're that much different than the dreamer who seeks to fulfill this country's promise hate is a trap that sinks us all and I know that you know that Missoula because you've sent an amazing state representative in Zoe Zephr to the state capital that's my girl out 50:03 there i was actually I was actually texting with Zoe this week she was going to be here today but she's at the Capitol right now voting for you all doing the job but Montana that's because it is standing together without exception to reject division that is the only way that we can win so I hope that you see that this movement is not about partisan labels or purity tests but it is about class solidarity is about the thousands of you who came out here today to stand together and say our lives deserve dignity and our work deserves respect no matter who we are or where we come from because we are here to make a sacred promise to one another and we will make that promise to take care of each other on our worst days and to 51:04 share in the successes of our best thank you Missoula thank you and with that I want to introduce the man who has brought us all here together today senator Bernie Sanders [Applause] the people [Applause] [Applause] thank you Missoula 52:01 [Applause] let me begin by sharing a very fond memory with you about Missoula [Applause] i was here I expect right in this auditorium a number of years ago because my daughter Karina thought that Vermont was not rural enough so she wanted to go to a real rural state and she decided to come here to the University of Montana and while she was here she met a boyfriend named 53:03 Blake they got married and today I am the grandfather of two beautiful kids Cole and Tessy so so thank you University of Montana for bringing them together and let me thank all of the speakers who have preceded me uh a special thanks to Sarah Nelson one of the great trade union leaders in America and a very very special thanks to Alexandria [Applause] Kaziocortez who is not only a great congresswoman from New York but has been 54:00 an inspiration to millions of young people throughout the country i want to say a word about Alexandria which has less to do with her than to do with you and that is that I think six years ago or so Alexandria was a waitress in New York City that's what she did she was a waitress and she looked around her in a community which has very serious problems and she said 'You know what we can do better.' And she decided with no money with no organization but with just a spirit to fight for justice she organized and she took on one of the most powerful people in the US Congress and she defeated him 55:10 now why I say this is not just about Alexandria it is about you because I suspect that in this room of seven or 8 thousand people and the couple of thousand people outside who couldn't get in we have a lot of Alexandrias and Josephs and Harry's and Mary's and what we are asking you today is to understand that coming to this rally is just the first step in moving forward to transforming this country donald Trump has taken us into an unprecedented moment in modern American 56:03 history and we have got to respond in an unprecedented way and that means you can't look around and say 'Well Alexandria is going to do it bernie's going to do it somebody else is going to do it ain't going to happen you are going to have to do it.' Now brothers and sisters Alexandria and I have been all over the country and we've seen record-breaking turnouts unbelievable including right here in Missoula and I believe that people and it's not just Democrats and it's not 57:00 just independents we got Republicans coming out as well because they are saying loudly and clearly we will not allow the United States of America to become an oligarchy [Applause] in America today one person I want you to hear this clearly one person you may have heard of him his name is Elon Musk [Applause] mr musk himself owns more wealth than the bottom 58:06 56% of American households one person owns more wealth than 56% of American households that is not what this country is supposed to be [Applause] about but it is not just oligarchy the American people conservative progressive moderate are standing up loud and clear and telling Trump 'You will not create an authoritarian society we're a democracy [Applause] 59:02 together brothers and sisters and it's hard i'm not going to hit sit here and give you some fancy rhetoric taking on oligarchy is enormously difficult these guys own the economy we now have more concentration of ownership than we've ever had in the history of this country they own most of the media they own the United States Congress and the White [Applause] House they got enormous amounts of wealth and power but you know what we got we got the people [Applause] and the last that I have heard is that 99% is a hell of a bigger number than 1% 1:00:11 so when we stand together and overcome what Trump and his friends try to do and that is to divide us up by the color of our skin or where we were born whether we're born in the United States or someplace else or our religion or our sexual orientation whatever it may be that is what demagogues always do they always find some minority and they say to the whole country you got all kinds of problems that's who it is it's the immigrants it's transgender people it's gay people that's how they win they divide us up but when we stand together black and white and gay and straight 1:01:09 There is nothing that can stop us [Applause] and right now in the United States Congress they are working along with Trump on what is called a reconciliation bill see it is not good enough for them that Musk owns more wealth than the bottom 56% of households not good enough for them that the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90% not good enough not good enough that CEOs of large corporations now make 300 times what 1:02:05 their workers make not good enough so now they're working on legislation that would provide 1.1 trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1% [Applause] and they do that by cutting Medicaid by 880 billion they do that by cutting nutrition programs for hungry children they do that by cutting education and other programs that working families desperately [Applause] need now you have a congressman here his name is Ryan Zinci 1:03:02 now I come from Vermont traveled a long distance to get here alexandria comes from New York traveled a long distance mr zinci does not have to travel a long distance to meet with you so I would suggest that you ask him to sit down have a meeting with a few thousand people and ask him one simple question mr ziki are you going to vote to cut Medicaid and education and nutrition to give massive tax breaks to billionaires who don't need it so Mr ziki have the courtesy to do what we do in a democracy sit down and have a little chat with your constituents 1:04:05 and right now it's not only tax breaks for the rich and cuts to Medicaid unbelievably you have Mr musk wealthiest guy on earth running all over Washington DC he is cutting the staff at the Social Security Administration big [Applause] time and here is the truth the truth is that before Trump came in the Social Security Administration was understaffed and I as a senator and I am sure that every member of Congress and senator gets the same calls we have calls from constituent we're trying to get a hold of social security to talk about an issue that we have can't do it you don't cut thousands and thousands of workers from the Social Security Administration when they are already understaffed 1:05:07 and let me tell you exactly what that means people who are old and with disabilities die when they can't get the benefits they are entitled to that's a fact they have done it in the past and you cut the Social Security Administration you're going to see thousands of people dying who should not be dying that is outrageous [Applause] but it is not just social security they're going after you know the heroes and heroins of this country are the men and women who have put their lives on the line to defend us our veterans we got any veterans here today any veterans here today thank you 1:06:07 and at a time when the VA the VA Veterans Administration is understaffed we don't have enough doctors or nurses mental health councils at the VA they have Musk and his friends have the brilliant idea of firing 83,000 employees at the VA and that will mean lower quality health care for our veterans and delays in them getting the benefits that they deserve so what our message to Musk and Trump are we are not going to allow you to destroy the Veterans Administration or Social Security 1:07:00 [Applause] now when we talk about the kinds of changes we need in America it's important to understand that the oligarchs do not only have enormous economic power they do but they also have incredible and unprecedented political power during the last election Elon Musk himself spent $270 million in order to get Trump elected [Applause] and his reward for that 270 million was to be made the most important person in the United States government 1:08:05 [Applause] but it is not only Musk and Republicans who put huge amounts of money to elect right-wing candidates and to defeat those who stand up for the working class it is Democratic billionaires as well there is a reason why over the years the Democratic Party has not been as strong as it should be in standing up for the working [Applause] class and that is the power of big money in the Democratic party so I believe I believe honestly that I speak for conservatives moderates and progressives for the overwhelming majority of the American people who understand that there is something 1:09:01 fundamentally wrong in our campaign finance system when billionaires can buy [Applause] elections and that is why together we've got to get rid of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court [Applause] decision and why we have to move to public funding of elections you know I may be a radical from Vermont and maybe I'm old-fashioned but I believe that democracy is one person 1:10:01 one vote not billionaires buying elections but it's not just oligarchy and the power of the rich that we are fighting right now we are taking on a president who undermines our constitution every day [Applause] who threatens our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly we're taking on a president whose a agents are riding around in unmarked cars grabbing people off of the streets putting them in vans and taking them to detention centers in this country and abroad [Applause] 1:11:03 and I want you to picture some of you may have seen some of those videos swarm of Asians come around surround some woman in Massachusetts throw her into a car that is what takes place in dictatorships not democracies and as some of you know by a nine to0 vote the United States Supreme Court told Trump to bring back that gentleman from El Salvador and I think we can all be in agreement and again this is not a progressive issue it's actually more a conservative issue our conservative friends say we support the constitution well if you support the constitution you don't throw people into detention centers in El Salvador 1:12:11 [Applause] every day every day Trump is trying to take more and more power away from the Congress he is in an unprecedented way taking on the judiciary what what America is supposed to be about is you have a judicial system and sometimes they rule for you sometimes they rule against you but I got to tell you I am no great fan of the Roberts Supreme Court they gave us this terrible decision on Roie [Applause] Wade on Citizens United and other bad decisions but we live in a rule of law 1:13:04 donald Trump obey the Supreme Court of the United [Applause] States but he is not just trying to user power from the Congress and the judiciary apparently Mr trump is unfamiliar with the first amendment to the Constitution freedom of speech and in recent months the president of the United States has sued ABC CBS Meta the De Mo Register his FCC is now investigating NPR and PBS 1:14:02 and the other day the other day he said CBS should lose its license and what terrible crime did CBS commit they criticized policies of the president of the United States how terrible for the president to be criticized [Applause] so Mr president you're living in a democracy whether you like it or not and part of living in a democracy is to accept criticism and if you can't take criticism get out of the political process 1:15:02 you know it's really rather amazing suing media who write stories that you don't like this is a guy who all of you know over the years has been vulgar in his attacks against his opponents he can dish it out make terrible comments about anybody and everybody cbs writes a story that's critical of him oh my god they're got to lose their [Applause] license but it's not only the media unbelievably he is going after major law firms who have represented clients opposed to his policies and I say to those cowardly law firms these are multibillion dollar law firms who make huge sums of money every year by doing business in Washington representing corporate interests the 1:16:00 function of a law firm is to protect the rule of law not cave in to authoritarianism and he's going after [Applause] universities these so-called conservatives who believe in local control now want to tell universities and schools what they can and cannot do and I want to thank Harvard University for standing up to Trump and I hope every university in this country does the same 1:17:02 the function of a university and it is an enormously important effort is the pursuit of truth no matter where that truth takes you that's what it is vigorous debate on the University of Montana and every other university the function of a university is not to collapse in the face of authoritarianism so universities stand tall but it is not just domestic policies of the Trump administration that should concern us for the first time embarrassingly for the first time in the 250 year proud history of the United States we have a president who is aligning us with a dictatorship in 1:18:05 Russia no Mr president Ukraine did not start that terrible war russia did [Applause] and let me tell you something else we cannot continue to fund under Biden or Trump this horrendous Netanyahu war machine [Applause] israel Israel like the United States and every other country has the right to defend itself against terrorism but Israel does not have the 1:19:06 right to wage a barbaric war against the people of Gaza kill over 50,000 wound 110,000 and destroy the entire infrastructure of Gaza and let me tell you something that is even worse and almost unimaginable and I the beginning I almost thought it was a stupid joke bad joke and that is right now Trump is talking about forcibly expelling the suffering people of Gaza and creating a Riviera for the billionaire class in Gaza the American people will not ever allow that to 1:20:02 happen our job our job right now in this pivotal moment in American history is to take on Trump every single day but it is to do more than that it is to understand that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world we can do a hell of a lot better than having an oligarchy while the richest people in America are becoming much richer 800,000 Americans are sleeping out on the street we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any nation on earth 1:21:01 and 22% of our seniors are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less brothers and sisters the media doesn't talk about it much and you don't hear much about it in Congress 60% of our people in America today are living paycheck to paycheck you all know what paycheck to paycheck life is about i grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck i know a little bit about what that is like and what it means is that every day moms get up and say 'How can I afford to provide decent quality food for my kids what happens if my dad becomes ill how can I afford to buy the prescription 1:22:00 drugs that he needs what happens if my landlord raises my rent and I can't afford to pay it what happens if my car breaks down and the mechanic says I got a $1,000 bill i don't have a thousand bucks how am I going to get to work what happens if I can't get to work i'm going to lose my job i lose my job how do I feed my family millions and millions of workingclass people low-income people are living under incredible stress and do you know what the impact of that stress is they are dying in significantly younger ages than they should do you all know that in America today our life expectancy is four years lower than other wealthy countries but if you are working class in America you're going to 1:23:00 die seven years shorter than the rich in the richest country in the history of the world it is not too much to ask that all of our people have the right to a decent life and decent life expectancy [Applause] you know back in 1944 Franklin Delanor Roosevelt one of the great presidents in American history he gave a State of the Union speech which didn't get a lot of attention because it was in the middle of World War II but what he said he said in so many words he said you know in America we have this Constitution it's great freedom of speech you have the right to vote freedom of religion freedom of assembly but he said you know what we don't fully appreciate we don't 1:24:02 appreciate that economic rights are human rights see what the system does we are taking on a system of enormous power and one of the things they are trying to do is to say you have no rights say hey we'll let you vote every four years to somebody that we paid for that's fine no problem hey we g we bought this guy you could vote for him you ain't going to win anyhow it doesn't matter if you do win but this is what we will not give you we will not allow you as an American system American citizen the right the right to have health care the right to have decent housing the right to have a job that pays you a living wage that we're not going to give you 1:25:02 so brothers and sisters our job is to really take that on in as bold a way as we can and to stand up and say you know what we are human beings good we want the right to vote very important freedom of speech very important but you know what in the richest country in the history of the world where technology is going to make us richer we want an economy that works for every single man woman and child not just Mus and his billionaire [Applause] friends so what does it mean it means that no we are not going to cut social security we are going to expand social 1:26:01 security it means that at a time when millions of workers are earning starvation wages we're going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage no worker who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty it means that no we're not going to give Musk and his billionaire friends a tax break we're going to demand they start paying their fair share of taxes [Applause] does anybody here think that the American health care system is working well we are spending almost twice as much per 1:27:00 capita on health care over $14,000 a year double what other countries are spending and yet we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right 85 million of us are uninsured or underinsured anybody here have a high [Music] deductible 60,000 people a year die because they don't get to a doctor on time brothers and sisters it is not a radical idea to understand that health care is a human right we must pass a Medicare for all singlepayer program [Applause] 1:28:00 in Vermont and all over this country we have a housing crisis and it is not just 800,000 who are homeless it is 20 million people who are spending half of their limited income on housing maybe maybe just maybe instead of spending a trillion dollars on the militaryindustrial complex we build 5 million units of lowincome and affordable [Applause] housing we live in a global economy and we need the best educated workforce on Earth [Applause] young people who want to get a higher education either in college or in trade school should not have to go tens of thousands of dollars into debt 1:29:06 education not only makes it not only makes important sense for our economy education growing intellectually is something that every human being is entitled to we must make public colleges and universities tuitionfree and cancel all student debt [Applause] now Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax he is dangerously dangerously wrong and our job is to lead the world in transforming our energy system away from 1:30:02 fossil fuel into energy efficiency and sustainable energy and create millions of jobs as we do that you know a lot of my Republican friends they talk about freedom and freedom and freedom well if this is going to be a really free country every woman in America has the right to control her own body [Music] [Applause] let me read something to you which was a statement made in 1:31:00 1857 few years ago by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglas you all remember Frederick Douglas i want you to hear what he said this is in the years preceding the Civil War when the great struggle of the time was whether or not this country would end the nightmare of slavery listen closely what Douglas said back then and see its relevance for today so what he said and I quote 'Power conceds nothing without a demand.' Got that in other words nobody on top is ever going to give you something unless you demand it then he continued 'It never did and it never will.' Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them and these will continue till they are resisted with 1:32:04 either words or blows or with both the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress brothers and sisters we are tired of being oppressed we believe in democracy not authoritarianism we believe in an economy that works for all not just for Musk and his fellow billionaires brothers and sisters let's stand together let's go forward let us win 1:33:00 this struggle thank you [Applause] [Applause] [Music] thank you

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