Bernie Sanders as President

ARGUMENT 1: THE PROBLEM - THE ESTABLISHMENT OLIGARCHY: THE SYSTEM IS RIGGED TO FAVOR THE TOP 1% "There is something profoundly wrong when the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent [1] and when 99 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. [2] There is something profoundly wrong when, in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires [3] at the same time as millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages [4] and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. [5] There is something profoundly wrong when one family, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, owns more wealth than the bottom 130 million Americans. [6] This grotesque level of inequality is immoral. It is bad economics. It is unsustainable. This type of rigged economy is not what America is supposed to be about. This has got to change and, as your president, together we will change it." "A rigged economy is about an economy, for example, where the wealthiest family in this country, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, pays its workers wages that are so low that the middle class has to pay more in taxes to provide food stamps and Medicaid for Wal-Mart employees." [7] "A rigged economy is when you have corporations making billions of dollars a year in profit, and not paying a nickel in taxes. [8] A rigged economy is where you have companies able to shut down as a result of trade agreements that they have written, and move abroad and pay people pennies an hour. [9] That is a rigged economy. A rigged economy is when, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, the top one-tenth of 1% now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. If that's not a rigged economy, I don't know what a rigged economy is." "As a result of the disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, the American political system has been totally corrupted and the foundations of American democracy are being undermined. [10][11] What the Supreme Court essentially said was that it was not good enough for the billionaire class to own much of our economy. They could now own the U.S. government as well. And that is precisely what they are trying to do. [12]" "[I]t"s not the Republicans and Democrats hate each other. That"s a mythology from the media. The real issue is that Congress is owned by big money [13] and refuses to do what the American people want them to do." [14] "[T]o ensure that the voters themselves didn't have all the power, in 1982 the Democratic Party adopted what are called superdelegates, who today control 15% of the final nomination process." [15] "CNN's Jake Tapper asked Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz why the Democratic Party would embrace such a plainly undemocratic process. Here's what she said: "Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists." In other words, the Democratic Party's superdelegates exist to preserve the power and influence of the Democratic Party's elite." [16] "The economic and political systems of this country are stacked against ordinary Americans. The rich get richer, and use their wealth to buy elections. Working families get poorer, and give up on the political process. This is not democracy. This is oligarchy. [17] We need a political revolution." ARGUMENT 2: THE SOLUTION " A NEW DEAL FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THE NEED FOR A POLITICAL REVOLUTION "What I would hope that all of you do--and I understand that, and it"s a wonderful thing there are difference of opinion, that"s called democracy, and I love that. But I would hope that all of you are prepared to think big not small. Do not get sucked into this worldview and this debate whether we cut education by two percent or increase it by one percent. Understand, again, you are living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. [17] And when we stand together, when we do not allow demagogues to divide us up as to whether we are White or Black or Hispanic, whether we were born in this country or born abroad, whether we are straight or gay, whether we are men or women, when we stand together we can accomplish extraordinary things. Please do not tell me, that in the United States of America, at a time when we are seeing a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires, don"t tell me that we have to have the highest rate of childhood poverty than any other major country on Earth. [18] Don"t tell me that. Please do not tell me, that in this great country with all of our wonderful doctors and scientists and nurses and medical personnel and administrators, don"t tell me that we have to be the only major country on Earth that doesn"t guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. [19] When every psychologist in the world tells us that the most important years of human development are zero to four, don"t tell me that we cannot have the best childcare system in the world rather than the dysfunctional one we have today. [20] We can do that. And don"t tell me that here in Chicago or in Vermont, and all over this country, that we"ve got to have senior citizens trying make ends meet, on twelve, thirteen thousand dollars a year, buying their medicine, heating their homes, buying the food they need, suffering unnecessarily, at a time when Republicans want to cut social security. [21] Don"t tell me that we can"t expand social security and provide a decent retirement for all of our people. And when men and women put their lives on the line and do their duty and defend us in war, don"t tell me that we have to have veterans in this country sleeping out in the street. [22] We can provide well for all of our veterans. When we talk about our responsibilities as human beings and as parents, there is nothing more important than leaving this country and the entire planet in a way that is habitable for our kids and grandchildren. The debate is over. The scientific community has spoken in a virtually unanimous voice. [23] Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity and it is already causing devastating problems in the United States and around the world. [24] I ask you, as young people, to stand up and be leaders in this country. I ask you to help us create a nation where every person, no matter their race, their religion, their disability, or their sexual orientation, realizes the full promise of equality that is our birthright as Americans. There is nothing that I am telling you today that is pie-in-the-sky, that is utopian. Nothing. We can accomplish all of that and more, but we will not accomplish that if 80% of young people do not vote. [25] We will not accomplish that if 63% of the American people do not vote. [26] Now the truth is, that the billionaire class, and corporate America, and Wall Street, and the corporate Media have enormous, enormous power. [27] And I would be fooling you if I suggested otherwise. They are very, very powerful people. And they control this country, and have controlled this country for a very, very long time. But at the end of the day, and while they have the power, we have something they do not have, and that is, we have the people. And when people stand together, we can win. "[A]ll across this country the American people are looking around them and they understand that real change in our country"s history " whether it is the trade union movement, whether it is the civil rights movement, whether it is the women"s movement, whether it is the gay rights movement " they understand that real change never, ever takes place from the top on down. It always takes place from the bottom on up." "This is what the campaign is about. I know it"s outside mainstream thinking" it is to revitalize American democracy. On issue after issue" [for example] raising the minimum wage. Overwhelming support for raising the minimum wage, [28] congress does not want to do it. Pay equity for women workers, [29] Congress does not want to do it. What you need and what I say is you need a political revolution. And that is you need these young people to understand and working people and low income people, if they are not involved actively in the political process, it will be the billionaire class who makes decisions for them and not necessarily in their interest. [30] And then you know what I say [to Mitch McConnell]? I"d say, "Hey, Mitch, take a look out the window. There's a million young people out there who don't want to be in debt for half their life for the crime of going to college. If you want to antagonize those million people and lose your job, Mitch, if you don't want to lose your job, you better start listening to what we have to say." That's the point. That's how change takes place. Let me tell you this. Absolutely, positively, 100 percent, if we rally young people in this country to say, you know what, Germany, Scandinavia, other countries, they have free tuition in public college and universities. I talked to kids $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, $100,000 in debt paying a huge percentage of their income, OK? Young people stand up and say we are sick and tired of it. We don't want to go in debt for our whole lives because we got a college education. You know what? We'll win that fight immediately. But the trick is not to appeal to Mitch McConnell. It's to say, Mitch, take a look at your e-mails. You don"t make change by sitting down with Mitch McConnell. You make change when millions of people in this country demand change. That"s the way change has always taken place. It always happens when millions of people demand change. ------ See comments section for citations