When you were preparing to leave Washington, you told President Clinton that you are going to continue to stir up trouble. I will continually stir up trouble, in the sense of trying to move this country toward a place that is no longer a land of widening inequality. We can't allow America to become even more of a two-tiered society than we have right now. We must make sure that everyone has an opportunity to get ahead and feels that they themselves have a stake in the vitality and prosperity of our economy and our democracy. When the largest party in America is the party of nonvoters, then we have to figure out the means by which to re-engage them in the process.
Government still matters.
Social organization still matters. Labor unions can make a comeback. Communities can rebuild from the bottom up, as long as the most successful don't secede and create their own communities and have nothing to do with communities of working-class people. We mustn't become resigned. I doubt that I'll ever go into government again.