Bernie Sanders Urges Students to Demand That Progressive Voices Be Heard
In light of recent stories claiming that fake news rigged the election, the former Democratic presidential candidate encourages using the internet as a means to "get good information out to people."Sen. Bernie Sanders has spent the past year and a half spreading his message of social revolution across the United States.
The former Democratic presidential candidate spoke at the University of California, Berkeley, last week to promote his book “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In” and continue his mission of challenging President-elect Donald Trump.
“I want to talk a little bit about the book, but I suspect there are one or two other things on your minds as well,” he told the more than 2,000 people in attendance.
As Sanders has made clear in previous speeches, he refuses to compromise with the “delusional” president-elect on key issues such as “racism, sexism … homophobia, xenophobia,” climate change and “protecting American democracy.”
Trump’s victory with the working class shows the growing need for reform within the Democratic Party, Sanders said. The solution is to make it a grass-roots party, he said:
Our job is to not only expose the hypocrisy of Donald Trump, but it is to revitalize and bring fundamental reforms to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has got to open its doors to working people, to young people, to low-income people. … The truth of the matter is the Democratic Party will not succeed by being the party of the liberal elite. It has got to be the party of the working people of this country.
Sanders addressed the recent uproar over fake news by pointing to this book’s last chapter, titled, “Corporate Media: A Threat to Our Democracy.”
“Corporate America is owned by large, multinational corporations, whose job is not to propagate truth or to educate, but to make as much money as they can,” he said. “We have got to demand that corporate media start talking about the real issues impacting the lives of the American people. Now, I’m not overly optimistic that that will happen, because there are such inbred conflicts of interest.”
“Figure out a way that you can demand corporate media talk about the real issues,” he encouraged. “Allow progressive voices to be heard.”
Watch the hourlong speech and Q&A below.
—Posted by KiMi Robinson
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