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US SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS May 3rd 2025 ... Bernie Sanders Brings 'Fighting Oligarchy' Tour to Bethlehem, PA PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QW9lfLT_vQ Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I am a fan of Senator Bernie Sanders! I really can't believe that he is 83 years old ... he is so energetic. But he is also very very grounded ... talking 'common sense' all the time. I particularly like his embrace of young people. Unlike many older politicians, Sanders seems 'authentic' ... and I like the way he collaborates with some of the younger representatives like AOC. Thank you, Bernie! Peter Burgess
Bernie Sanders Brings 'Fighting Oligarchy' Tour to Bethlehem, PA electron media group inc. May 3, 2025 124K subscribers ... 11,028 views ... 695 likes The 83-year-old Vermont senator brings the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to the Stabler Athletic & Convocation Center at Lehigh University. Joining Sanders and also speaking during the program will be U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa. Deluzio represents Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District in western Pennsylvania. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate, said the nation needs a “political revolution in the deepest sense” during his visit Saturday to the Lehigh Valley. “Democracy is not an entertainment activity,” he said at the start of his speech, which is ongoing. “It’s not a beauty contest. It’s not a concert. It’s getting active and standing up for the people next to us, the people down the block and the people across the country. We need to be thinking of new ways of how we can be more generous, more effective, how we can bring people together to create the kind of nation you and I know we can become. Join this channel to get access to perks: / @electronsinc Transcript 0:00 thank you Lei [Applause] Valley This is not only a great turnout but you are loud I think Trump is hearing you in Mara Lago and he wants to turn down the volume but we ain't going to let him Well let me thank all of you for coming out Let me thank the university for allowing us to use this beautiful [Applause] facility Let me thank Augusta Ko and the Messengers for their music Let me thank Susan Wild and Enid Santiago and Brian Taylor and Tim Herzock and Haredor for their important statements And let me thank Congressman Chris Deluzio for doing a great job in Washington and for 1:04 being here today Now when I was in college a few years ago they had a thing called cliffnotes They still have it All right So in case anybody has a short attention span I'm going to give you the cliff notes of my remarks First I'm going to say hello to your Congressman Ryan [Applause] McKenzie Now we are live streaming this event So Ryan if you're there hi [Applause] And then we're going to talk a little bit about what has gone on in the last terrible frightening 100 days under [Applause] 2:01 Trump And then I want to take you on a tour of what's happened in fact over the last 50 years and why Trump was elected president and the failures of the Democratic party to stand up for the working class And maybe most importantly cuz we don't do this at all I want to talk with you about a vision of where we must go as a [Applause] nation Because if there's anything I want to convey to you today is of course yes we must do everything we can to defeat Trumpism But that is not enough 3:03 We are the richest country in the history of the world and there is no reason why every man woman and child in this country does not have a decent standard of living And brothers and sisters what I also want to say is that in this unprecedented moment in the modern history of our country and the world we have got to think in unprecedented ways We cannot do today what we did yesterday And that means we need a political revolution in the deepest sense And that 4:03 sense that sense understands I'm not Taylor Swift in case you haven't noticed We're not here as an entertainment show We're not here to applaud Bernie or Crystal We are here to transform America and the only way we do it is by transforming ourselves Democracy democracy is not an entertainment activity It's not looking at somebody else It's not a beauty contest It's not a concert It is getting active and standing up for the people next to us the people down the block and the people across the country 5:08 So we need to be thinking of new ways And in every part of the country in every state it may be a little bit different But we got to think of new ways as to how we can be more generous more effective how we can bring people together to create the kind of nation that you and I know we can become So let [Music] me begin I've already gone on for 10 minutes and I'm beginning That's what you learn when you're US Senator by saying hello to Congressman McKenzie And let me say this Mr Congressman we are living in very difficult times And in your district right here and all across this country 6:04 millions of working people are struggling to put food on the table I was just in Harrisburg yesterday We had a great rally in the evening and earlier in the day I had some time and the administrators were kind enough uh to allow me to go to a couple of schools and talk to some of the kids in Harrisburg Beautiful [Applause] kids And one of the kids you know I wanted to hear what was going on in their lives And one of the kid gets up and says 'Well you know I'm living with my dad now My parents are separated but my mom is trying to help out She's working at two jobs right now and she's looking for a third job All right And this is what is in fact going on all over this country 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck So I say to Congressman McKenzie you know and everybody in this room knows or should know that there is 7:02 a what is called a reconciliation bill in Washington that will be we think coming to the floor of the House and Senate in the pretty near future And what this bill in general does is it would make massive cuts over $800 billion in Medicaid It would make massive cuts in nutrition programs massive cuts to housing And all of those savings would be used to provide a $1.1 trillion tax break for the richest 1% So my message to Congressman McKenzie is don't vote for that terrible piece of 8:02 [Applause] legislation And if you do I have a strong suspicion you will be a one-term member of Congress [Applause] You know for a number of years in Vermont and around the country I talked a lot about our nation moving toward an oligarchic form of society And there were people who were saying 'What does oligarchy mean What is Bernie talking about?' Well thanks to Donald Trump we now know what oligarchy is 9:00 about When Donald Trump was elected president and I know it seems like a lot longer time ago but it was only a 100 days When Trump was elected president he had behind him three of the wealthiest people in America You remember who those guys were He had Elon Musk You know Elon and he had Mr Bezos next to him and he had Mr Zuckerberg next to him Three wealthiest guys in America standing right behind the president But that wasn't enough Behind those guys you had 13 other billionaires that Trump had nominated to become the heads of major federal agencies 10:08 You know right here in Pennsylvania back in 1863 at that terrible battle of Gettysburg where 20,000 Union soldiers were either killed or wounded A few days later as you all remember President Abraham Lincoln came to the battlefield and he looked at that terrible battlefield where just a few days ago so many people had died and he said in so many words 'What we believe in is a government of the people by the people for the people 11:04 And what Trump has made perfectly clear he doesn't hide it I got to give the guy credit for that That right now we have a government of the billionaire class by the billionaire class and for the billionaire class And we are not going to accept that You have an obscenity in the wealthiest guy in the world running all over Washington DC firing thousands and thousands of dedicated federal employees at a time when the Social Security Administration doesn't have enough employees right now to service the seniors They want to throw away What they want to do is charge thousands and thousands of people at the Social Security 12:01 [Music] Administration at the time at a time when the Veterans Administration is understaffed They want to lay off 83,000 employees at the VA Well I don't care if you are Republican Democrat or independent We stand with the veterans of this country and we're not going to see a deterioration in their healthcare or in the benefits that they receive But it is not just oligarchy that we are dealing with today We are looking at an unprecedented attack on the foundations of American democracy and under Trump a movement toward authoritarianism [Applause] 13:06 You know the founding fathers of this country were nobody's dummies You all recall that they had fought and led the fight against the autocratic king of England the most powerful person on earth at that time A guy like Trump who thought he had the divine right to rule And what these guys did founding fathers they said 'You know what We see what the autocrat in England is doing And we're going to have a constitution which provides for separation of powers right You all remember that from history class So you got an executive branch the president a legislative branch Congress Senate and House and a judiciary our 14:03 federal courts And the reason we have that separation of powers is precisely to prevent what Trump is trying to do today He is usering the powers the appropriation powers of the United States Congress Unbelievably unbelievably when a court decision comes down that he doesn't like he says 'We're going to impeach the judge.' [Applause] But it's not only Congress and the judiciary he is going after again in an unprecedented way He is going after the media Now this is a guy who throughout his career has leveled the most savage vicious attacks on his opponents Everybody is crazy Everybody is awful 15:05 Everybody is disgusting Everybody is terrible And yet when the media criticizes him he wants to sue them and shut them [Music] [Applause] down So we say to Mr Trump if you can't accept criticism get out of the political process That's what democracy is about And let me talk a little bit about something that the media doesn't talk about and we don't talk about in Congress at all And that is the reality that today we have 60% of our people living paycheck to 16:02 paycheck We have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of the country And as a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision we now have a corrupt campaign finance [Applause] system in which billionaires in both political parties are controlling the political and legislative agenda [Applause] And I think this is an issue whether you're a Republican progressive conservative whatever you may be nobody thinks that American democracy is about Elon Musk contributing $270 million to elect Trump and then becoming the most important person in government So brothers and sisters when we talk 17:07 about the future of America and our political system at the top of our agenda must be the need to end this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and move to public funding of [Applause] elections Now let me tell you something which you're not going to hear much about in the corporate media and you're not going to hear much about in the halls of Congress And that is that today that is that today the average American worker in 18:00 real inflation accounted for dollars is earning less than he or she did 50 years ago Now you know why the American people are angry They're angry because they're looking around them They're seeing a huge increase in worker productivity And yet all of that wealth is going to the people on top not to the working class of this country And we are here tonight We are here today to say loudly and clearly that we demand an economy that works for all of us not just the people on top [Applause] And by the way we need a Democratic party which makes a fundamental choice 19:05 and that is are you on the side of the working class of this country or not There are millions of working people whose families used to vote Democratic and they look and they say 'Why do we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country Why is it that I'm working longer hours for low wages Why is it that I can't afford healthcare Why is it that I can't afford my rent or my mortgage Why is it that I can't afford to send my kid to college And the Democratic Party is finally going to have to say 'We stand with those people We are prepared to take on the greed of corporate America 20:12 But when we talk about the Democratic Party it is not just domestic issues and I'm going to get into that in a moment It is also foreign policy as well Donald Trump Donald Trump believes that Ukraine started the war with Russia Well Mr Trump get your history correct It was Russia and that terrible dictator Vladimir Putin that began that war And we will stand with democracy and not with authoritarian people all over the [Applause] 21:00 world But it's not just the Ukraine I strongly oppose Biden's continued military support to the horrific Netanyahu war against the people of Gaza Since that war began over 50,000 people have been killed over 110,000 wounded and then the entire infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed right now As bad as that and I want you to hear this because this is important As bad as what Biden has did 22:01 and what Trump is now doing Trump has another idea which is so crazy so unimaginable that you can't really believe they are seriously talking about it But what they are talking about today is forcibly expelling 2.2 million Palestinians from their own place of living [Applause] and converting Gaza into a playground for the rich a new Riviera for Trump and his friends We will never never allow that to happen Now I work in the US Senate So I am around people who are able to talk 23:01 more and say less than any group of human beings in the history of the world So when we talk about where we want to go as a nation we have got to talk with some specificity not in general terms And what I'm begging of you is when you hear candidates who want your vote be tough on them Ask them hard questions Are they unequivocally prepared to reject corporate pack funding [Applause] At a time when billionaires have enormous power in both parties are they prepared to work vigorously to overturn Citizens United 24:03 Today in America the top wealthiest person in this country if you can believe it owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of households You got that One guy top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 93% CEOs now make 350 times more than their average [Music] workers So these people on top they are very religious people But it's a strange kind of religion You know all of the major religions on earth speak in one way or another about doing unto others as you would like them 25:00 to do unto you right Christianity Judaism Islam whatever kind of that's the heart and soul of many major religions What the religion of these oligarchs are is greed greed and more greed And that greed is destroying our country We got to stand up to it and end [Applause] it So it is not just about not giving them massive tax breaks that Trump wants It's about telling these large corporations and billionaires they are going to start paying their fair share of 26:00 taxes all over America Workers want to join unions [Applause] And they want to join unions because they know that when you're in a union you can negotiate decent wages working conditions and benefits But employers know that too and they're making it harder and harder for workers to join unions That's why we need to pass legislation that punishes any employer who denies workers the constitutional right to form a union Here in Pennsylvania and in many parts of this country there are workers earning starvation wages Millions of workers all over America Shamefully the federal minimum wage remains at 27:01 $725 an hour Can you believe that Nobody in America can live on 7 and a4 an hour That is why we got to raise that federal minimum wage to at least $17 an hour As I mentioned I was in Harrisburg yesterday talking to some kids and many of them want to be able to go to college go to graduate school Young lady wanted to be a pediatrician Somebody wanted to be a psychologist Others wanted to be construction workers get the training they need to do the work this country desperately needs But they were all worried about whether or not they could afford to go to college and the huge kind of debt they would assume if they did go to college We need the best educated workforce in the [Applause] world We need more doctors We need more 28:03 nurses We need more mental health counselors We need more electricians sheet metal workers carpenters Young people should not have to go into a lifetime of debt in order to get the education they need and our country needs from them 22% of seniors in America the richest country on earth are living on $15,000 a year or less Can you believe that Try being a senior living on 15,000 Try being anybody living on 15,000 Some Republicans want to cut Social Security We are not going to cut Social Security We're going to expand Social Security by lifting the cap on taxable 29:12 income The United States of America today is the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right [Applause] We spend over $14,000 per person on healthcare And yet we got 85 million Americans uninsured underinsured Over 60,000 die each year cuz they can't get to a doctor on time The function of health care is not to make billions for drug companies and insurance companies The function of a rational health care system is to provide quality care to 30:01 every man woman and child We're going to do that through a Medicare for all single bay program And all over this country Pennsylvania Vermont and all locations we are suffering a major housing crisis You got 20 million people spending 50% or more of their limited incomes on housing You got 800,000 people sleeping out on the streets Instead of spending a trillion dollars on the military how about building 5 million units of lowincome and affordable housing So brothers and sisters this is a difficult moment in 31:01 American history but we have had difficult moments in our history before and I have every confidence that if we are prepared to reject what Trump and his friends want to do and that is divide us up get us to hate each other for whatever reason the color of our skin or where we were born or our sexual orientation If we stand together around an agenda that speaks for working people there is nothing that can stop us [Applause] Now I'm not going to lie to you The oligarchs they are enormously powerful They have unlimited amounts of money They control the political process They own the media They own the economy 32:04 That's a lot of power But what I believe at the end of the day and I'm not a PhD in mathematics but I do know that 99% is a hell of a larger number than 1% [Applause] So we got a lot of work in front of us We really do And this rally is just a small part of what we're trying to do We're trying to get you and others to start running for office We need candidates from school board to Congress We need help in growing the trade union movement in your organizations on campus dealing with climate and other important [Applause] issues So let today be the beginning not the end Let us go forward and in these 33:03 very very difficult times make sure that our grandchildren and those who come after them look back at this moment and say we stood up We had the courage We took on authoritarianism and we won Thank you [Applause] [Applause]

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