Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke at a "Fighting Oligarchy: What Do We Do Now" Rally in Greeley, Colorado.
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00:00You know, I was told that you have a little bit over 100,000 people in Greeley, and between
00:14the 6,000 who are outside and the 4,000 who are here, I think we got 10% of the community
00:28at this rally right now. Thank you. Now I want to say a word about Alexandria. When
00:44Alexandria was a kid, you correct me if I'm wrong, she cleaned houses with her mom in
00:54order to make enough money for the family to survive. And then after she graduated
01:00college she was a barista, working paycheck to paycheck. But what she did, as she looked
01:10around her and in her community in Bronx, New York, is she saw that change had to come.
01:21And so what she did is decided to run for Congress and people said, what are you kidding?
01:28The guy who represents the district was one of the most powerful members of Congress.
01:34He had access to unlimited kinds of money. How much money did you have when we started?
01:40You started. None. None. All right. But she put, she did what real politics is about.
01:50Real politics is not sitting at million dollar fundraisers. It's working with people in your
01:58community. And she worked hard, and her friends worked hard, and she pulled off a major upset.
02:19And since then she has been a great member of Congress, but not only that, she has been
02:25an inspiration to millions of young people all across this country. Now, the reason I
02:36say all of that is not just to praise Alexandria, and I love her, but is to tell you and the
02:46people of America that what Alexandria did, you can do. There are millions of young people
03:00out there who love this country, who are disgusted with what they are seeing, who are prepared
03:11to get involved in the political process. So, Alexandria, thank you for being that inspiration.
03:26AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC! AOC
03:56Why were we in Tempe last night? Well, there was an unbelievable number of people coming out, Las Vegas earlier than that, and we'll be in Tucson tomorrow. Why are we doing that?
04:09And we're doing that because this country faces a set of enormous crises, and how we respond to this moment
04:26will impact not only our lives, but the lives of our kids, future generations,
04:39and in terms of climate change, will impact the future of this planet.
04:44And what I have to tell you is that given the huge turnouts we have seen already on this trip,
04:59it is clear to me that the American people are outraged at what's going on.
05:15And the American people are saying loud and clear, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society.
05:31We will not accept the richest guy in the world running all over Washington making cuts to the Social Security Administration,
05:42cuts to the Veterans Administration, almost destroying the Department of Education,
05:56all so that they could give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%.
06:05But it's not just oligarchy we've got to deal with.
06:11Under Trump, this country is moving very rapidly to an authoritarian form of society.
06:23Today, we have a president who is undermining our Constitution every single day.
06:35Who is threatening freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
06:43You know, I look back at the civics class that I took in the 6th grade a few years ago.
06:51And you probably took the same class, we studied American history, we studied the Constitution.
06:57And it's important to remember what we learned back then.
07:01And that is that the founding fathers of this country, way back in the 1790s,
07:05they had fought a war against the all-powerful King of England and the British Empire.
07:13And they're thinking, how do we create a new country in which one person will never ever have the kind of power that the King of England has?
07:27So with a lot of debate, and these were really smart guys, a lot of debate,
07:31they said, you know what, what we are going to do is create a government and a Constitution
07:39which has a separation of powers.
07:47And that means we're going to have an executive branch and a president, a lot of power.
07:54We're going to have a Congress, a lot of power.
07:56We're going to have a judicial branch, a lot of power.
08:02And that is what they put together.
08:04And that is precisely what Donald Trump today is trying to undermine.
08:16First Amendment to the Constitution is the all-important freedom of speech.
08:24And in a way that is unprecedented, Trump is trying to intimidate the media and anyone who speaks out against him.
08:42He loves the media when they fawn all over him.
08:49But like other cowards, he can't stand to be criticized.
08:59Trump has sued ABC, CBS, Meta, and he sued the Des Moines Register because he didn't like a poll that they did.
09:12His FCC is now threatening to investigate PBS and NPR.
09:24He has called CNN and MSNBC illegal.
09:31In other words, the so-called leader of the free world is afraid of freedom.
09:47Well, Mr. President, if you are too cowardly and too vain to accept criticism, then get out of politics.
10:01Because that is precisely what democracy is about.
10:15That's what the beauty of democracy is about.
10:19It's your ideas and my ideas and we argue about them and we vote on them.
10:23It's not do as I want or I'm going to investigate you.
10:31But it is not just the media that he is going after.
10:35He is going after the constitutional responsibilities of Congress.
10:39Congress, under the Constitution, has the power of the purse.
10:46And every day, he is challenging that, slashing funding without authority that only Congress can do.
10:56Trying to wipe out agencies that Congress has created and only Congress can eliminate.
11:04But it's not only the media and Congress that he is going after.
11:13The third branch of government is the judiciary and what they are supposed to do, what the federal courts do,
11:19is rule on whether laws are constitutional in their judgment or not.
11:23What the President does, constitutional or not.
11:27And there have, let me tell you, been many decisions coming down from this Supreme Court that I abhor.
11:38Their Citizens United decision, one of the worst decisions ever rendered.
11:46Their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a horrible decision.
11:54But those of us who live by the rule of law understand they have their powers, we have our powers.
12:03But now, for the first time, what Trump is doing is saying to a judge who issues a ruling,
12:11we don't like that ruling, we're going to get you impeached.
12:21President Trump, millions of Americans, millions of Americans have fought and died
12:29to preserve American democracy, we're not going to let you take it away from us.
12:41And we thank all of those veterans who put their lives on the line to defend democracy.
12:48But it's not just oligarchy and authoritarianism that is on our minds.
13:00All over this country, people are standing up and they are saying we will not accept
13:06a society of massive income and wealth inequalities,
13:13a society in which the very rich are getting much richer while millions of working families
13:21are struggling to put food on the table.
13:29And what people are saying is that in the richest country in the history of the world,
13:36we are going to fight for and create an economy and a government that works for all of us,
13:42not just the 1%.
13:56Alright, I'm going to do something radical now, you ready?
14:02I'm going to tell you the truth.
14:06I know, pretty radical, but what the hell, only go around once.
14:12And I want to take a few minutes to describe to you what is really going on in this country.
14:18And it's something you don't see much in the corporate media and you certainly don't hear
14:22discussed in the halls of Congress.
14:26And that is, in America today, we have two separate Americas.
14:33On one hand, we have an America in which the wealthiest people have never, ever in the history
14:41of our country had it so good.
14:45Today, we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had.
14:53Today, we have three multi-billionaires, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg,
15:01These three combined own more wealth than the bottom half of American society,
15:13170 million Americans.
15:19Now, we don't talk about it much for obvious reasons,
15:24but the idea that so few have so much and so many have so little
15:32is not what this country is supposed to be about.
15:46And further, let's take a look at concentration of ownership in the economy.
15:51You know what we hear kids read in school books,
15:53we're a society, people go out and they start their own small businesses,
15:57free enterprises, great, everybody competes against each other.
16:01That ain't the case.
16:03Today, you have more concentration of ownership in America
16:07than we have ever had in the history of this country in sector after sector.
16:11Whether it is agriculture, transportation, media, financial services,
16:18what you have is a small number of extraordinarily large corporations
16:24who charge us outrageous prices for the products that we have to buy.
16:32Let me mention just one example of concentration of ownership.
16:36Today, nobody talks about it.
16:40Today, you got three Wall Street firms, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
16:47Combined, these three investment firms are the majority stockholders in 95% of American corporations.
17:05And these guys, I want to tell you something because I bump into them in my line of work.
17:11They are not nice guys.
17:13I know on TV they come across in your community,
17:15they make a donation to the hospital,
17:17little boys and girls clubs,
17:19or to the food shelf.
17:21They're just very nice, but they're not.
17:25You know, in America today, as I think all of you know sadly and tragically,
17:29and we got to deal with it,
17:31we have major epidemics dealing with addiction.
17:37I think we lost 100,000 Americans last year because of drug overdoses,
17:42serious problem in my state.
17:44We have people addicted to alcohol, serious problems with alcoholism.
17:50We have people who are addicted to tobacco.
17:52My father smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and he died before he was 60.
17:56People addicted to food.
17:58But I will tell you this,
18:00in the midst of all of these addictions,
18:02the worst and most dangerous addiction we have is the greed of the oligarchs.
18:12Now everybody wants to do well in life, everybody wants to make money.
18:24But you would think that if you had a few billion dollars,
18:28or 10 or 20 billion dollars,
18:30you would not feel obliged to step on the backs of poor people to become even richer.
18:42But that is exactly what they are doing right now.
18:50They are prepared to destroy Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare,
18:56the Veterans Administration in order to make themselves even richer.
19:02And these guys have no sense of what goes on in the real world.
19:08They live in another planet.
19:11They own mansions all over the world.
19:13They go on vacations in their own private islands.
19:17When they want to go someplace, they don't go into their car,
19:21they go into the planes or the helicopters that they own.
19:25Send their kids to the best private schools and colleges.
19:29That is their world.
19:31Let me tell you about another world,
19:33the other America that we don't talk about.
19:36And that is today in the richest country in the history of the world,
19:4060% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.
19:48You all know what paycheck to paycheck is?
19:52Some of you live in paycheck to paycheck.
19:56I grew up in a family, live paycheck to paycheck.
20:00Know a little bit about that.
20:03What that means is people today are wondering
20:07how are they going to pay their rent
20:09if their landlord raises the rent by 20%?
20:13How are they going to pay $20,000 a year for child care
20:17when they're only making $50,000 a year?
20:21People want to buy decent, good quality food for their kids.
20:25Walk into a grocery store, can't afford that food
20:29because the prices of food are sky high.
20:33People get sick, their kids get sick.
20:37They're uninsured or underinsured
20:39and they're saying how in God's name
20:41am I going to be able to take my kid to the doctor's office?
20:45At the end of the month, people have thousands of dollars
20:49in credit card debt, paying 20, 30% interest rates.
20:53How the hell do I pay those rates?
20:57And what happens if my car breaks down?
21:01Something as simple as that happens every day.
21:03And I go to the car shop and the guy says
21:05$1,000, get it fixed.
21:07I don't have the $1,000.
21:09What do I do?
21:11What do I do if I can't get my car
21:13and I can't get to work?
21:15And if I can't get to work, I get fired.
21:17And if I get fired, how do I take care of my family?
21:23You know why the American people are angry
21:25and they are angry all over this country?
21:28They are angry because, believe it or not,
21:32despite a huge increase in worker productivity
21:36over the last 52 years, if you could believe it,
21:40real inflation accounted for wages today
21:44are lower than they were 52 years ago.
21:48Meanwhile, there has been a $75 trillion transfer of wealth
21:55from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.
22:01That is what a rigged economy is about
22:05and that is what we are going to change.
22:17So let's also take a look at other aspects of American society.
22:22Anybody here think our healthcare system is working well?
22:26It is a broken and dysfunctional and cruel healthcare system.
22:34We are spending twice as much per capita on healthcare.
22:40We're spending $14,000 for every man, woman and child.
22:44Yet $85 million are uninsured or underinsured.
22:48Do you know what underinsured means?
22:51How many people here have high deductibles?
22:53What kind of deductible do you have, ma'am?
22:55Do you know?
22:57$7,500.
22:59What do you got?
23:01How much?
23:03$20,000?
23:07Deductible, what do you got?
23:09$9,000?
23:11$8,000?
23:13$7,000?
23:15Alright, what does all of that mean?
23:17It means that even though you have insurance, when you get sick, you still can't afford to go to the doctor.
23:25How insane is that?
23:27And you know what the result is?
23:29We don't talk about it much.
23:3160,000 Americans die each year because they don't get to a doctor on time
23:35because they're uninsured or they're underinsured.
23:41And I want to deal with another issue.
23:43You'll excuse me for being professorial here.
23:47And a little bit boring.
24:01But it's important that we know this.
24:03And here's again, a fact never, or very rarely talked about.
24:07Here's the fact.
24:09Despite spending so much on healthcare,
24:11our life expectancy, how long we live,
24:16is about four years younger,
24:18four years shorter,
24:20than other major countries.
24:22That's bad.
24:24That is bad.
24:26But I want to tell you what is even worse
24:28and I want you all to think about it
24:30and help me out here.
24:32If you are working class in America,
24:34you will live on average
24:36about seven or eight years
24:38shorter lives
24:40than if you are wealthy.
24:46In other words,
24:48being working class in America
24:50is a death sentence.
24:54Alright, question.
24:56Why is that?
24:58Why is that? Raise your hand. Tell me why.
25:00Yes, ma'am.
25:02Stress?
25:04Alright, stress?
25:06Let me deal with that.
25:08Alright.
25:10The woman here said stress.
25:12And she's absolutely right.
25:15What kind of stress
25:17are working class people living under today?
25:19Who wants to help me out on that?
25:21One and a half. I can't get you all.
25:23Yes, I see a hand there.
25:25Survival.
25:27Stress means you're trying to survive every week.
25:29Okay, more.
25:31I own a small business
25:33and I can't get corporations
25:35to pay their fucking bills.
25:37I own a small business
25:39and I can't get corporations
25:41to pay their bills.
25:44Yes, ma'am.
25:46Financial stress.
25:48Yes, ma'am.
25:50Taxes.
25:52Tuition.
25:54Yup, way back there, ma'am.
25:56What?
25:58Safety.
26:00Okay, yes.
26:02What?
26:04Dental.
26:06Dental work.
26:08Thank you for raising that issue.
26:10Anybody have a problem with the cost of dental care
26:13in America?
26:15Bloody right.
26:17Alright, other issues.
26:19Yeah, I see a young man back there.
26:21Workplace safety.
26:23Okay.
26:25Yes, ma'am.
26:27Mental health.
26:29Alright, look.
26:31We could spend two hours going on here.
26:33Alright, but
26:35here is the bottom line.
26:37When you
26:39are struggling paycheck
26:41to paycheck,
26:43you are worried about how you survive
26:45every single week.
26:47And doctors call this almost the
26:49physiology of poverty.
26:51That stress
26:53that you live with 24 hours a day
26:55eats away at your body
26:57and your mental health.
26:59And that is the
27:01major reason why working
27:03class people are dying
27:05seven years earlier
27:07than the rich.
27:09It is a shame, but it's more
27:11than a shame. It is unacceptable.
27:21And the point that I want
27:23all of you to get ingrained in your heads
27:25look, if we were a poor country,
27:27a country like Haiti, a really poor
27:29country, I would say to you,
27:31well, I'm sorry you don't have good health care.
27:33Sorry you don't have good dental care.
27:35Sorry you can't send your kids to college.
27:37If we were a poor country, we can't afford it.
27:39Brothers and sisters,
27:41we are the richest country
27:43in the history of the world.
27:45There is no
27:47excuse for working class
27:49people dying seven years
27:51earlier than the rich.
28:03There is no excuse
28:05that one out of four Americans
28:07cannot afford to fill
28:09the prescriptions
28:11that their doctors write
28:13for prescription drugs.
28:17There is no excuse
28:19that in the richest
28:21country on earth, 800,000
28:23Americans are homeless
28:25and 20 million people,
28:27including people in this room,
28:29pay 40, 50 percent of your incomes
28:31for housing.
28:36No excuse,
28:38no excuse
28:40that our child care system
28:42is a disaster, outrageously
28:44expensive while workers there
28:46are being paid low wages.
28:48No excuse
28:50that our public schools are
28:52struggling, trying to get
28:54teachers. No teacher in America
28:56should make less than $60,000
28:58a year.
29:05So, my friends,
29:07why is all of this
29:09happening? Why is it
29:11that the rich get richer
29:13and working class people
29:15die younger than they
29:17should? Well, that has everything
29:19to do with the fact that we're
29:21living in an oligarchic
29:23form of society.
29:25You know, I've been talking about
29:27that for a few years.
29:29But I think the rest
29:31of the world is catching on to what
29:33I was talking about.
29:35And the reason is,
29:37you've got to be dumb and blind
29:39not to see what's going on.
29:41You've got a President
29:43Trump getting inaugurated,
29:45and I must tell you,
29:47one of the more bizarre experiences
29:49of my life was I was kind of pushed
29:51into the front row of that.
29:53And there I am, there's
29:55Trump, and right behind him,
29:57you've got Musk,
29:59Bezos, and some guy named
30:01Zuckerberg.
30:03Three wealthiest guys
30:05in the country, and then
30:07behind them, you've got
30:0913 other billionaires who
30:11Trump nominated to head up
30:13various government agencies.
30:15You know,
30:17Abraham Lincoln
30:19talked about a government
30:21of the people, by the people,
30:23for the people.
30:25Well,
30:27Trump has a government
30:29of the billionaires,
30:31by the billionaires,
30:33and for the billionaires.
30:35And what
30:37these guys are busy
30:39doing right now
30:41is going after Medicaid,
30:43going after Social Security,
30:45going after nutrition.
30:47Rich want to get richer,
30:49and they don't care
30:51what they get.
30:53They want to get richer, and they don't care
30:55who they step on.
30:59Now, it is imperative
31:01that we
31:03fight Trump every step
31:05of the way, and by the way,
31:07it is not just on
31:09domestic issues. This country
31:11has a 250
31:13year history, and never before
31:15have we had a president
31:17ally himself
31:19with a terrible dictator
31:21like Vladimir Putin.
31:27And on top
31:29of that,
31:31Trump wants to continue the
31:33disastrous policies
31:35of the Biden administration and provide
31:37more funding for the
31:39Netanyahu government to
31:41destroy the people of Gaza.
31:47All right.
31:51Our job, though, is not
31:53just to play
31:55defensive. We've got to get
31:57on the offensive as well.
32:05And that means having
32:07a vision of where
32:09we as the wealthiest nation on
32:11Earth, the longest standing democracy
32:13on the planet, where do we want to go?
32:15What kind of nation do we
32:17want to become?
32:19And for a start,
32:21the profound issue that must be
32:23dealt with is we must
32:25end this corrupt campaign
32:27finance system.
32:35Now, I don't care
32:37if you're a Republican,
32:39Democrat, or Independent. I don't
32:41think there's anybody who thinks it vaguely
32:43makes sense that the richest guy in the
32:45world could spend $270
32:47million to get Trump
32:49elected and then become the most powerful person
32:51in the government.
32:55It's not just Republicans.
32:57Let's be clear. Billionaires are
32:59funding the Democratic Party
33:01and preventing that party from
33:03standing up for working families.
33:07Bottom line, we need to
33:09end Citizens United, move to
33:11public funding of elections.
33:17Trump wants to
33:19give massive tax breaks
33:21to billionaires. Our view,
33:23it's time that the billionaires started
33:25paying their fair share of taxes.
33:31Republicans
33:33refuse to raise the minimum wage.
33:35We want to raise that minimum wage
33:37to a living wage, at least
33:39$17 an hour.
33:43Musk and
33:45Bezos and others
33:47want to break unions. We
33:49believe in the trade union movement.
33:55Workers all over this country
33:57want to join unions. They're
33:59being stopped by the illegal activities
34:01of corporations. We've
34:03got legislation in that will end that.
34:05Let's pass the PRO Act.
34:11Trump and his friends
34:13want to cut Social Security.
34:15We're going to expand
34:17Social Security by lifting the cap.
34:23Trump and his
34:25friends want to cut Medicaid.
34:27Well, we've got a different idea. We're going to
34:29join the rest of the industrialized
34:31world, guarantee healthcare
34:33to all, it's a human right.
34:35We're going to
34:37fight and pass
34:39Medicare for all,
34:41single-payer.
34:45In a competitive
34:47global economy, we need the best
34:49educated workforce
34:51in the world.
34:55Young people should
34:57not go broke or in debt
34:59because they want to go to college or a
35:01trade school.
35:05We desperately need
35:07doctors and nurses
35:09and teachers and
35:11carpenters and
35:13sheet metal workers
35:15and construction workers.
35:17We need to make sure
35:19our people get educated
35:21without going into debt. We need to
35:23make our public colleges, universities
35:25and community colleges tuition-free.
35:27We need
35:29to save
35:31the planet
35:39and create
35:41millions of good-paying jobs
35:43by transforming our energy
35:45system.
35:47All right, we need
35:49an EMT, please.
35:51All right,
35:53we've got a medical issue.
35:55Medical issue.
35:57Medical issue.
36:01Somebody fainted?
36:03All right, we need some help here, please.
36:05Security?
36:09All right.
36:11All right, they're on their way from the back.
36:13Let's take a break for a moment.
36:25I love you Bernie.
36:27I love you Bernie.
36:41What?
36:43Are we okay?
36:51Okay, good, alright, thank you.
37:06You know, Trump and his friends talk about freedom.
37:12Well, in a free society, we must absolutely guarantee that it is the women of America
37:19who control their own bodies, not the government.
37:41Look, let me end on this note, and the note is that this is a very difficult time in the
37:53history of our country.
37:54It's not the first difficult time that we have.
37:57Remember, we've gone through a civil war, we've gone through slavery, we've gone
38:03through workers trying to form unions and getting beaten up and killed, we've gone
38:09through a depression, we've gone through 1941 being attacked and not knowing how to
38:15respond.
38:16We've gone through a lot of things.
38:18But this is what I believe, the essence of, I think, what we are about.
38:24And that is, if we stand together, if we care about each other, if you care about my family
38:31and I care about your family, if we don't believe that the goal in life is just to make
38:42billions and step on other people and to lie, cheat, and steal, if we believe that love
38:49and compassion is what motivates us.
38:55Now, if there are some Republicans here, Republicans watching and on the live stream,
39:06Republicans did not vote for Donald Trump in order to give tax breaks to billionaires
39:10and cut Social Security.
39:11Believe me, they didn't.
39:14And the reason that Trump has been successful and why demagogues around the world are successful,
39:18you know what they do?
39:20They play one group off against another.
39:23They're telling you who you're going to hate.
39:26And our job is to do exactly the opposite.
39:36The right wing wants to divide us up based on the color of our skin or where we were
39:42born or our religion or our sexual orientation.
39:49And our job is to come together.
39:54Now, I don't have a Ph.D. in mathematics, but I do know this, that 99 percent is a hell
40:04of a lot larger number than 1 percent.
40:15So if we stand together, are strong, are disciplined, are smart, I have every, every
40:26reason to believe, deepest, deeply in my heart, that not only will we defeat Trumpism, but
40:32we can create the kind of nation that we deserve.
40:38Thank you very much.