Welcome to a new BERN (Bernie Election and Revolution News). The BERN diaries are a collaborative effort of the Daily Kos group,The Political Revolution. We are not affiliated with the campaign, except as volunteers. Numerous group members have contributed to this series in affirmation of Bernie’s campaign motto “Not me. Us.”
We haven’t had a BERN diary in a while, so let me start with a quick explanation of why I’m doing this one now.
I like politicians who speak out clearly and strongly about what they stand for. We are fortunate to have a good number of such politicians coming forward in recent times. I’m talking about people such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and others who are not hesitant to say plainly and clearly what they stand for and how they hope to accomplish the changes they see a need for.
I do a weekly series spotlighting quotes from these people — quotes where they speak out strongly on the need to treat immigrants humanely, the need to close down private for-profit prisons and detention centers and to prosecute those who have been involved in abusing prisoners, the need to treat climate change as a global emergency, the need to make health care available to all who need it, the importance of opposing racial bigotry and religious discrimination, and many other important matters.
I call these strong statements of progressive values $27 Quotes. And I’ve run into a problem: there are so many good $27 quotes each week now that I can’t fit in all the ones I would like to share.
One large reason for that is Bernie Sanders. For decades Sanders has been speaking out about important matters. Now, thanks to social media and to the increased attention he’s been getting from the media due to his presidential campaign, he’s been speaking out even more often. If I include even a fraction of the many good quotes he says each week then I don’t have enough time or room to include many of the quotes I’d like to share from other inspiring people.
So I thought it made sense for me to do an occasional BERN featuring some of the many Sanders statements on important issues. That will leave more room in the regular quote diaries to spotlight other people. (That will also let me use some longer quotes than I do in the quote diaries, and to go into more details about some of the plans he’s proposing and some of the things he and his campaign are doing rather than just linking to the plans.)
I think positive candidate diaries are a very good thing to have, especially when they are substantive rather than simply puff pieces, and I’ve tried to make this diary substantive. I enjoy reading about the good things our numerous candidates are saying and doing, learning more about how they plan to address the problems facing our nation and the world if they become our next president. It’s a way to help us understand why others are excited by and enthusiastic about their favorite candidate(s), a way to help us grow in our appreciation of those candidates even if they aren’t our first choice, and a way to help unite us for the election campaign ahead. I hope those of you reading this will enjoy what you see, regardless of which candidate you’re rooting for the most, and I hope you will find the content interesting and informative.
Before we get to tonight’s quotes, though, here’s an important note:
This is an election diary about Bernie Sanders and his campaign’s recent activities. Constructive comments and questions about his policies, issues, or campaign strategy are welcome. What’s not welcome is negativity towards Bernie Sanders, his supporters, or any of the other 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates and their supporters.
Lots of stuff I’m eager to share tonight!
In fact, there’s so much it really doesn’t all fit comfortably, so I’m breaking this BERN into 2 parts and moving several sections I had planned to include tonight into a second BERN which I’ll post on Friday. That one will include quotes about and details on Bernie Sanders’ Workplace Democracy plan, his Justice and Safety for All plan, and his Medicare For All plan, plus other good stuff.
All right, let’s get started ...
One of my long-time favorite magazines is The Nation. (All right, it’s mainly for their weekly crossword puzzle — but they also feature some very good columns, editorials and articles.) John Nichols recently did a short interview with Bernie Sanders which is posted on The Nation’s website. I encourage you to click on this link to read it all, but here’s an excerpt from one of Sanders’ answers to Nichols’ questions which I thought was especially worth sharing:
One of the points of this campaign is to ask questions the corporate media will not. Where is the power in America? Why aren’t things changing? I want to force discussions on those issues because—I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll say it again—no president, not Bernie Sanders or anybody else, can do it alone. We can’t transform this economy, this government, unless millions of people are involved in a grassroots political movement to challenge the power structure of this country.
So this campaign is about two things. It’s certainly about winning here in Iowa and winning the nomination and beating Trump. But it is also about transforming America. The way we do that is through a movement not dissimilar to the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay rights movement, the labor movement. That’s how change takes place.
~ Bernie Sanders
“No president, not Bernie Sanders or anybody else, can do it alone. We can’t transform this economy, this government, unless millions of people are involved in a grassroots political movement.” I think that bears repeating. It’s the sentiment at the heart of Sanders’ campaign and it’s something I very strongly agree with.
Something of Interest…
Here’s something Bernie Sanders recently wrote about the amount of interest which banks and credit card companies charge nowadays:
Today’s modern-day loan sharks are no longer lurking on street corners, threatening violence to collect their payments. Today’s loan sharks wear expensive suits and work on Wall Street, where they make hundreds of millions of dollars in total compensation by charging sky-high fees and usurious interest rates, and head financial institutions like JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and American Express.
Last year, credit-card companies raked in nearly $180 billion in revenue from interest and fees. This year, they are expected to charge Americans $122 billion in interest payments alone.
Despite the fact that banks can borrow money today at less than 2.5 percent from the Federal Reserve, the median credit-card interest rate today for consumers is an astounding 21.36 percent…
If we are going to create a financial system that works for all Americans, we have got to stop financial institutions from charging outrageous interest rates and fees.
And Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have come up with a plan to deal with this problem.
At a time when the American people hold a record $1 trillion in credit-card debt and desperately need relief, we need to establish a national maximum interest rate of 15 percent on credit cards and other consumer loans.
In America today, millions of consumers are now paying credit card interest rates of 20, 25, even 30 percent. When credit-card companies charge over 20 percent interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available — they are involved in extortion and loan sharking…
Establishing a national usury law is not a radical concept. Up until 1978, about half of the states in the country had usury laws on the books capping interest rates on credit cards and other consumer loans. For example, in Alabama, the legal maximum rate of interest was 8 percent. In Alaska it was 10.5 percent. In Arizona it was 10 percent. In Idaho, it was 12 percent. In Kansas, it was 15 percent. In New Mexico it was 15 percent. And, in Vermont, the legal maximum rate of interest was 12 percent
But, those state interest-rate caps were obliterated by a 1978 Supreme Court decision (Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp), which concluded that national banks could charge whatever interest rate they wanted if they moved to a state without a usury law. So most of these companies moved to South Dakota or Delaware with no interest rate caps, allowing them to charge people in Vermont or Kansas interest rates of 20 or 30 percent.
That is unacceptable. Under this plan, the disastrous Marquette Supreme Court decision would be repealed…
You can read the full details of the Loan Shark Prevention Act which Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are proposing by clicking the link.
The Climate Crisis
Bernie Sanders has been an early leader on a number of important issues — such as working to abolish private for-profit prisons and to provide community housing for immigrants rather than locking them up in detention centers. As Bill McKibben recently pointed out, climate change is another area where Bernie Sanders has been a leader:
It’s worth remembering that it was Bernie Sanders who in a 2016 debate was the first legit candidate to say that climate change was the greatest threat facing the world. Props to him for leading, and to others for figuring out he was right. That's how organizing is supposed to work.
~ Bill McKibben
Recently Sanders released his Green New Deal plan, which has received high marks and very good reviews from leading environmentalist groups.
The climate crisis is not only the single greatest challenge facing our country; it is also our single greatest opportunity to build a more just and equitable future, but we must act immediately.
Climate change is a global emergency. The Amazon rainforest is burning, Greenland’s ice shelf is melting, and the Arctic is on fire. People across the country and the world are already experiencing the deadly consequences of our climate crisis, as extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes upend entire communities, ecosystems, economies, and ways of life, as well as endanger millions of lives. Communities of color, working class people, and the global poor have borne and will bear this burden disproportionately.
The scientific community is telling us in no uncertain terms that we have less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, if we are going to leave this planet healthy and habitable for ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and future generations. As rising temperatures and extreme weather create health emergencies, drive land loss and displacement, destroy jobs, and threaten livelihoods, we must guarantee health care, housing, and a good-paying job to every American, especially to those who have been historically excluded from economic prosperity.
The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s. Battling a world war on two fronts—both in the East and the West—the United States came together, and within three short years restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat fascism. As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal. From the Oval Office to the streets, Bernie will generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society, with support for frontline and vulnerable communities and massive investments in sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and a transformation of our transportation system.
We need a president who has the courage, the vision, and the record to face down the greed of fossil fuel executives and the billionaire class who stand in the way of climate action. We need a president who welcomes their hatred. Bernie will lead our country to enact the Green New Deal and bring the world together to defeat the existential threat of climate change...
Among other things, the plan aims to
- Transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent energy efficiency and sustainable energy by 2030 at the latest.
- Build enough renewable energy generation capacity for the nation’s growing needs.
- End greed in our energy system.
- Build a modern smart grid.
- Weatherize homes and businesses to perform energy efficiency upgrades to make buildings more energy efficient and lower energy bills.
- Phase out the use of non-sustainable sources.
- Regulate all dangerous greenhouse gases.
- Declare a climate emergency.
Our enemy is climate change, not coal miners and oil rig workers. We will not leave them behind. That is why the Green New Deal invests in job training, education and benefits for fossil fuel workers.
~ Bernie Sanders
You can read the full details of his Green New Deal plan by clicking the link.
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Going to War Against Racism and Bigotry
I'm Jewish, my family came from Poland, my father's whole family was wiped out by Hitler and his White nationalism. Too many people have fought over the years, too many people have died against racism to allow it to resurface and flourish in America. We will go to war against White nationalism and racism in every aspect of our lives.
When somebody hurts somebody else because of the color of their skin, and when somebody kills somebody because of the color of their skin, this is not just a hate crime -- which it is -- we're talking about domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism. So we can have attacks in this country against other people, and we're gonna throw the full force of the law against those people.
Second thing we do is we do it by actions and not just words; we have a government, we have an administration, we have a cabinet that looks like America; that looks like all of us; the reflection of America.
And when we combat White nationalism and when we combat racism, we are gonna use all of the laws in our power, including executive orders in every area, to make certain that we end the discrimination which now exists in healthcare where Black women are dying three times the rate of White women when they give birth. We will end the redlining that exists in housing discrimination. We will end the absurdity of Black kids leaving school much more deeply in debt than do White kids.
~ Bernie Sanders
11,000 events, 2 million phone calls, 30 million text messages!
(A Very Different Kind of Candidate Campaign)
In late August Adam Kelsey tweeted out:
On a call tonight with 5,500 volunteers, the Bernie Sanders campaign shared that they've hosted 11,000 events since April, made 2 million phone calls and sent 30 million text messages.
Or, as Sanders himself tweeted:
- 1 million people signed up to volunteer
- 2 million calls to early states
- 30 million text messages to early states
We are the strongest campaign to defeat Trump and transform the country because we are building an unprecedented grassroots movement.
The Huffington Post has a story about this:
Joining the call with volunteers after several of his advisers spoke, Sanders affirmed that, although the campaign would engage in conventional tactics like television and radio advertisements, its strength was the devotion of its supporters, many of whom have become volunteers.
“We are going to win this campaign because we ... are going to have the strongest grassroots movement of any campaign,” he said. “That is how we win this thing. We win this going to our base, our strength of support.”
...
On Tuesday evening’s call, the campaign said its staff and volunteers had made 2 million calls and sent 30 million text messages to voters in early states. It also recently concluded a two-week campus organizing boot camp, or “summer school,” that it says graduated more than 1,500 college and graduate school students who plan to serve as campaign ambassadors and organizers at their universities.
…
“We will win this election ― we will win the Democratic nomination, we will defeat Trump ― because we are going to bring out people who, in many cases, have not participated in politics before,” Sanders said Tuesday evening. “And I’m talking about a generation of young people who in my view are the most progressive generation in the history of our country ― anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobia, anti-religious bigotry.”
This is in many ways a very different kind of campaign from what people are used to. It’s that difference which has many people — especially young people — so excited by it. This is the kind of movement we’re going to need in the days ahead in order to get important policies enacted, important changes made, and important things done.
What Else Does Bernie Sanders Say?
Quite a lot, actually! Here are a few samples.
Every person in this country must have the right to:
- A decent job and a living wage
- Quality health care
- A complete education
- Affordable housing
- A clean environment
- A secure retirement
It's time for a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights.
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This is the richest country on Earth and we have:
- 40 million in poverty
- 34 million with no health insurance
- Half our people living paycheck to paycheck
I refuse to accept that as normal.
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We need to end voter suppression and make it easier for people to vote, not harder.
We need automatic voter registration.
We need to make Election Day a national holiday.
We need to end gerrymandering.
And we need to restore the Voting Rights Act.
If companies want to shut down factories in America and move abroad, pay workers starvation wages and refuse to respect the constitutional rights of their workers to form unions, they cannot expect to get a lucrative federal contract from a Bernie Sanders administration.
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Working people are angry and they have a right to be angry.
Their government and economy are rigged against them so the phenomenally wealthy can get even wealthier. I think it's about time we had a government that works for the working class.
Strong unions are the reason why America once led the world in wages and benefits. No wonder they're so popular, despite decades of right-wing attacks. We must rebuild the trade union movement in this country.
Corporations should not be getting massive federal contracts if they pay their workers starvation wages. When I am president that ends.
I am not only going to be Commander in Chief. I will be Organizer in Chief. We are going to rally the American people and stand up to the greed of the corporate elite.
We spend $80 billion a year locking up 2.2 million people, more than any country on Earth.
That is outrageous.
As president my goal will be to cut the incarcerated population in half.
Addiction is a disease, not criminal activity.
Here's who should be held criminally liable: The top executives of the opioid manufacturers who lied by pushing a product they knew was addictive on doctors and patients, causing a national public health emergency.
We must legalize marijuana nationwide and expunge past convictions.
The world's largest military budgets:
- Japan: $50 billion
- Britain: $53 billion
- France: $56 billion
- India: $58 billion
- Russia: $63 billion
- Saudi Arabia: $83 billion
- China: $168 billion
- United 🇸tates: $700 billion
What if—just maybe—we led the world not in weapons and war, but in fighting humanity's common enemy: climate change?
Congress gives hundreds of billions of dollars to fund our endless wars each year, yet making public college and universities tuition-free is somehow "too radical." I reject that.
The average cost of college tuition in:
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Denmark: $0 / year
- Finland: $0 / year
- Germany: $0 / year
- Norway: $0 / year
- Poland: $0 / year
- Sweden: $0 / year
- United States: $8,202 / year
College for All is not an impossible idea.
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If you were born in 1973, the median wage went from $17 to $19 an hour over your lifetime. That’s it. Two bucks in 45 years.
The top 1%'s annual income tripled: $480K to $1.45 million.
That's why we need a political revolution. To build an economy for all of us—not the 1%.
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Trump complains about "bad" trade negotiators. But U.S. negotiators under both parties deliberately pushed through trade deals written by huge corporations designed to outsource millions of U.S. jobs and exploit cheap labor.
We need fair trade to protect workers and our planet.
In 2016 voter turnout was only 46% among voters under 30 compared to 71% of voters over 65.
Young people do not think a political system which lets billionaires buy elections works for them.
We are going to change that and give them a reason to get involved.
And one final quote in closing:
I did not get into politics to figure out how to become president. I got into politics because I give a damn.
~ Bernie Sanders