Response

Today, we live in the richest country in the history of the world, yet millions and millions of people find themselves in desperate economic conditions.

Today, we now see a handful of billionaires with unprecedented wealth and power.||Today, America and the world are once again moving towards authoritarianism -- and the same right-wing forces of oligarchy, corporatism, nationalism, racism and xenophobia are on the march, pushing us to make the apocalyptically wrong choice that Europe made in the last century.

We see huge private monopolies -- operating outside of any real democratic oversight and often subsidized by taxpayers - with the power to control almost every aspect of our lives.

They are the profit-taking gatekeepers of our health care, our technology, our finance system, our food supply and almost all of the other basic necessities of life. They are Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex and giant agri-businesses.

They are the entities with unlimited wealth who surround our nation's capitol with thousands of well paid lobbyists, who to a significant degree, write the laws that we live under.

Today, we have a demagogue in the White House who, for cheap political gain, is attempting to deflect the attention of the American people away from the real crises that we face and, instead, is doing what demagogues always do - and that is divide people up and legislate hatred. This is a president who supports brutal family separations, border walls, Muslim bans, anti-LGBTQ+ policies, deportations and voter suppression.

It is Bernie's very strong belief that the United States must reject that path of hatred and divisiveness -- and instead find the moral conviction to choose a different path, a higher path, a path of compassion, justice and love.

We must guarantee everyone in our country basic economic rights - the right to quality health care, the right to as much education as one needs to succeed in our society, the right to a good job that pays a living wage, the right to affordable housing, the right to a secure retirement, and the right to live in a clean environment.

We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights.||We will create an America where "equal justice for all" is not just an aspirational ideal. Those words were written in our Constitution 242 years ago. And our nation's founding promise is 242 years overdue. We will treat structural racism with the exigency it deserves.

We will transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color, we must address the five central types of violence waged against black, brown and indigenous Americans: physical, political, legal, economic and environmental.

Whether it is a broken criminal justice system, or massive disparities in the availability of financial services, or health disparities, or environmental disparities, or educational disparities, our job is to-and we will-create a nation in which all people are treated equally. That is what we must do, and that is what we will do.

What Bernie believes is that the American people deserve freedom - true freedom. Freedom is an often used word but it's time we took a hard look at what that word actually means. Ask yourself: what does it actually mean to be free?|

Young people today are not only the most progressive generation in American history, they understand that they are the future of this country. And Bernie is enormously optimistic about the future when so many young people are signing up to not only defeat Donald Trump, but also to take on the special interests that dominate our economic and political lives. Together, we will finally create a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

It is time for the American people to stand up and fight for their right to freedom, human dignity and security.