With all of the focus on the Democratic Socialists competing in Democratic primaries across the country, I thought I'd spend time with the OG DS,
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who chatted with
Kristen Welker in NBC's
Meet the Press classroom yesterday. While some of Welker's questions were long, almost all of Sanders' answers were, so be prepared.
Welker started by referencing a new poll showing that "one third of Democratic-leaning voters now
identify as Democratic Socialists (DS)," and noted that, "quite frankly," DS candidates have been winning their primaries. And she asked Sanders if he was confident they could win in purple states. I'm going to try and break up his 470-odd word response into sections so you can catch your breath reading it.
Well, I am, but I’m mostly confident
that the American people know that our country today is moving in a very, very
bad direction at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality than
we’ve ever had in the history of America. What’s going on now makes the Gilded
Age of Rockefeller look like an egalitarian utopia. What’s going on now is that
millions of our people, right now, in the richest country on Earth, they’re
struggling to put food on the table, pay for health care, pay for their rent,
pay for their mortgage.
You got half of all the workers who have nothing in
savings as they face retirement. Or you’re facing seeing kids unable to afford
to go to college in the richest country in the history of the world. So people
all over America are looking around, they’re saying, “Hey, wait a minute. The
very richest people are becoming richer. Elon Musk himself, one man, owns more
wealth by far than the bottom half of American households. What in God’s name
is going on?”
And people look at the Republican leadership and Donald Trump,
and they say, “You know, this guy’s worried about a Reflecting Pool. I can’t
afford my retirement. He’s starting a war in Iran, costing us huge amounts of
money, killing innocent people. 18 American servicemen are dead. What are they
doing?”
And then you look at the Democratic Party leadership, which also gets
their money, like the Republicans, from very wealthy people, and people are
saying, “Is the Democratic leadership representing ordinary Americans?” And I
think people look at the Republicans, they say, “No, they’re out of touch,”
look at the Democratic leadership, say, “No, they’re out of touch.
We need a
government, a radical idea, that works for all people and not just for wealthy
campaign contributors.” And that’s why, from New York City with (Zoran) Mamdani, and in
Colorado, and in California, and in Montana, and I think you’re going to see it
in Michigan, people are saying, “Enough is enough. You know, let’s get a
government that represents all of us.”
And I’ve got to tell you something,
Kristen, that part of the exasperation that the American people are feeling,
it’s not just an economy which is rigged. They’re looking at a corrupt —
underlying corrupt campaign finance system. And what you’re seeing in Michigan
right now is AIPAC, other billionaire-funded super PACs, putting tens and tens
of millions of dollars against Abdul El-Sayed. In Minnesota against Peggy
Flanagan, same thing.
So we’ve got billionaires buying elections, government
working for the billionaires, and ordinary people saying, “We want change.” And
that is why progressives, democratic socialists, are doing so well all over
this country. They’ve got an agenda that speaks to the needs of working
families. They’re prepared to stand up to the oligarchs.
Since Sanders mentioned Michigan, she wondered how confident he was that his endorsed candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, could "pull out a victory" in Tuesday's primary against the establishment candidate, Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
Look, he has taken on –I’ve never - you
know, I’m not a political scientist. I cannot recall where a major candidate
was outspent so much by super PACs. I mean, they’re spending tens and tens of
millions of dollars against him. The polling recently looks good, but polls
don’t win elections, people do. So I would hope that, in Michigan and later
next week in Minnesota, people understand the importance of this election.
What’s it about?
It’s not just whether Abdul can win or not, beat Haley
Stevens. The question is whether or not we live in a democratic society where a
candidate fighting for working people can take on tens and tens of millions of
dollars of AIPAC money, special interest money. And I hope very much that Abdul
is - and I’ll tell you why, and a kind of selfish reason. Everybody in America
understands that our current health care system is totally broken. We’re
spending unbelievable amounts of money, twice as much per capita as the people
of any other country. 85 million uninsured, underinsured. Prices way high.
Dr.
El-Sayed is somebody I need in the Senate as he fights for Medicare for All.
He’s a doctor. He has seen the broken health care system. We need him to make
sure that every man, woman, and child in this country has health care as a
human right, as is the case in every other major country on Earth.
Welker noted that Sen. Gary Peters, whose seat is up for grabs, has backed Stevens to replace him, saying
You have to have a candidate who
understands that winning a general election doesn’t mean just turning out
Democrats. You also have to appeal to a broader cross-section of your state,
and Michigan is a true purple state.
To Sanders, she posted this question: "What do you think Dr. El-Sayed will have
to do in order to turn out moderates and independents to win a general election
if he does win on Tuesday?" In a nutshell, Sanders explained El-Sayed can win because working-class Republicans are in the same boat as all working-class people, and they know the system is broken.
You are struggling to figure out how you’re
going to retire with dignity. You understand that the current campaign finance
system is broken. You understand that workers need decent wages, and El-Sayed
is fighting for a livable minimum wage. And by the way, if you’re a Republican,
you know maybe we should be investing our money into Michigan, into Vermont,
into America rather than giving the extremist government of Netanyahu and
Israel tens of billions of dollars to continue their atrocities against the Palestinian people - I think if you’re a working-class - ok - if you’re a working-class Republican in Michigan, I think you’re going to
listen to what El-Sayed says. You’re gonna - and I think many of them will end
up voting for him. Independents
as well, of course.
Welker asked if El-Sayed should "speak with the same clarity" as Sanders has on the issue of Israel as a Jewish State. El-Sayed has said he "often struggles with the question of whether Israel has the
right to exist as a Jewish state.” Here's the non-answer:
Look, I think right now the immediate
issue of the moment is whether or not we continue to put tens of billions of
dollars into the extremist Netanyahu government, which has killed 75,000
Palestinians, mostly women and children, wounded 150,000, destroyed their
infrastructure. And what the American people are saying overwhelmingly,
Democrats, many independents - the majority of independents, and many
Republicans, especially younger Republicans, “We’ve got better things to do
with our money than to continue to fund the military of Israel.”
They talked a bit about the Maine primary, where Troy Jackson was chosen to replace Graham Platner after widely-reported scandals. Sanders knows Jackson; he'd endorse him if he was asked, and said "I look forward to working with him in the US Senate." And, on comments from Sen. John Fetterman (Kinda D- PA) about Sanders supporting Platner, Sanders suggested that Fetterman "was reflecting the views of about 19% of the Democrats" in PA and is "way out of touch with the people of America." And, when she asked if he had any regrets about endorsing Platner, he turned to his standard lines:
I’ll tell you, you know, I think right
now we’re looking at a campaign in Michigan, we’re looking at a campaign in
Minnesota. The people of this country right now are sick and tired of
establishment politics and establishment policies. They want change and I and
other progressives are going to do everything that we can to bring about those
changes.
Finally, they talked about who could carry the progressive banner into the next presidential race, which will be the first without him since 2016.
Kristen there are — one of the untold
secrets in Washington is in the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, you
have many, many really strong progressives. Many of them are young. Many of
them are women. Many of them are people of color. And we have elected many of
them. And I think as a result of this election cycle, you’re going to see a lot
more coming to Washington. I think as a nation, and by the way, with all due
respect, the media spends too much time worrying about who’s going to be a president
in two and a half years.
Right now, we have enormous problems facing this
country. We’re looking at heat waves all over the world. You’ve got climate
change. We’re looking at the big tech oligarchs pushing AI and robotics down
our throat. Congress is doing very little to protect working people in that.
We’re looking at massive levels of income and wealth inequality, a corrupt
campaign finance system. My suggestion is, as a country, as a Congress, as
media, let’s focus on the important issues facing working people. Two and a
half years from now is a long time to a presidential election. I’m sure it will
unfold itself.
I had hoped there'd be more questions about the Democratic Socialists of America platform, and to what extent the DS candidates support the platform. We'll have to wait to see if any of them win in November before anyone starts asking about that.
For his part, Sanders was Sanders - his answers, in my opinion, were entirely predictable. What do you think?
