Bernie Sanders Interview: Talking Rallies, Unions, IRA, More

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

TV: What would you say to young people who are maybe involved in or at the forefront of the movements you just named, but are skeptical they’ll see change at the ballot box?

BS: What I would say is that real, underline, politics is not instant gratification. Real politics is struggle, and you don't win major struggles overnight when you're taking on some of the most powerful people in the world. So it's important for people to understand what they are up against. And what we are up against right now is an incredible concentration of ownership at the top, where you really have this country moving to an oligarchy, a handful of huge corporations controlling our economy; a corporate media, which often deflects attention away from the real issues facing working people; and you're seeing super PACs buying and selling politicians. That's a lot to take on.

Anybody who knows anything about history, going way back from the struggle of the abolitionists, struggle to end slavery, struggle for women's rights, the struggle for workers rights, these are not easy struggles and they don't happen overnight. But right now, given the crises that we're facing – economically, where the rich are getting richer; and also everybody else is getting caught with a struggle that we're facing with climate, where the future of the planet literally hangs in the balance; or the struggle that we're facing in the fight against bigotry of all forms – it is absolutely imperative that people continue to be engaged and stand up for economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice. You can't back down. Now is not the time to give up, now is more than ever the time to be involved.

The overall struggle that we are engaged in is not complicated. It is to struggle for justice in the deepest sense of the word. A struggle to make sure that in the richest country in the history of the world, half of our people don't have to live paycheck to paycheck, that we do not remain the only major country not to guarantee health care to all people. That it is absurd that millions of people go deeply in debt because they want to get a higher education, that we have 500,000 people who are homeless in America. All of these issues are issues that can be resolved when you have a government that works for all and not the few. And what the struggle is about is to bring people together, to keep your eyes on the prize, to remain focused, and to fundamentally change the priorities that currently exist in Washington.

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/bernie-sanders-qa-ira-rallies

[JudyM]

1. How did he say so much of such importance in such a short space?! Focus, and knows how to

cut to the chase. Great that this was published in teen vogue, I hope he reaches through to a lot of folks, get ‘em registered.