Bernie: The Podcast | Episode 6 - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Welcome, everybody. Today, I am really pleased to have on our podcast Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the 14th District of New York State. Alexandria, thanks so much for being with us.

Of course. Thank you. It's always great being together and chatting, Bernie. Thank you for

having me. Okay. Look, there's a lot that's going on. Let me start off with a question that I don't know you get asked very often. Talk a little bit, not just about your background, you know, as a kid growing up, where you went to school, but how your background impacted your politics today.

Yeah. I mean, I was born in the Bronx in the late 80s to two Puerto Rican parents. My dad was born when the Bronx was burning. Well, he was born and grew up while the Bronx was burning. And my mom was born in a very, very poor and rural area in Puerto Rico. And so even when the Bronx was burning

and what my dad was seeing, people don't often talk about why. And a lot of it was landlords setting fire to their own buildings, sometimes with families inside, in order to recoup insurance costs. And because the property values were going down because black and brown families were moving into the neighborhood. And Robert Moses was building the Cross Bronx Expressway. It was always and so often

the result of these larger systems at play that resulted in a lot of the economic exploitation

and, you know, material hardship that we were that and that that families were confronted with.

And so when I talk about my story, I feel like there's no there's no story of me without the story of my parents. My mom was born in a very rural and poor area of Puerto Rico. And they survived just

unspeakable levels of poverty and destitution and survived. And my mom met my dad, he was he flew back to Puerto Rico to visit his family. And she was a girl next door. And that's where their story began.

And a couple of years later, well, they got married, moved back to the Bronx, and I was born. And I was born in the Bronx in a one bedroom apartment in Parkchester. And this was a time when the Bronx had about 50% dropout rates in its schools. It was completely abandoned. Its children were completely abandoned. And my parents felt that in order for me to have a shot, our whole extended family had to chip

in and try to see if we could move to a different zip code that had a school system that that they didn't feel that I would be doomed in.

Wow. So your parents were very conscious of the need to get you a decent education?

Absolutely. It is what shaped so much of their decisions was my ability to get a decent public education. And so my whole extended family, and it wasn't just my parents, my aunts, my uncles, everybody chipped in, and helped my parents get a down payment on a very small house 40 minutes north from where we lived. And I went to public school. And I went to public school, but I also had cousins

the same exact age as I was that didn't have the same opportunity. And we were all very close culturally. Even though we're cousins, we kind of grew up like siblings. And it was really conscious for me. I was very aware from the time I was very, very young about the difference in reality and opportunity between me and my cousins. And it was very deeply ingrained in me that the zip code we lived

in determined a lot about our destiny. And I knew from a very young age that that was wrong.

I always just felt this really kind of unconscious sense, I think, when you're a child and you see injustice, you know that something is off, but you don't have the words to articulate it.

And I felt that way. I felt that my cousins and other members of my family, other children in my family were just as smart as I was, just as talented as I was. But they didn't have books in their schools. And they didn't have teachers that cared for them. And I knew that our differences in opportunity were not a result of our character or anything, or how hard we worked. It was a result of just where we lived. And, you know, even then, it was still hard for my family. My mom was a house

cleaner. And my dad was trying to small, was trying to start a small business. And we had a lot of hardship growing up. And, you know, I often cleaned houses with my mom. And sometimes I'd be cleaning the houses of other kids that I went to school with, you know?

Was that a strange experience?

Yeah, I mean, it was. And like, also, there's, of course, there's the class element. There's also the racial element. I was like one of the only non-white kids in my school. And so it was very othering, right? Like, and this was a time when, when the town that I lived in was also quickly kind of evolving from a very working class area into more of a suburb, like more of a bourgeois

suburb. And so what that meant was that there was just a lot of class differences, racial differences that were blooming during this time. And, you know, it's, it becomes really apparent and obvious which kids have like the nice sneakers. And, you know what I'm saying? Like,

I know exactly what you're saying.

When, when, who is wearing and re-wearing the clothes a little bit more often, you know, and that like, who has five shirts has a lot more.

You know, it's funny because I had a similar experience wearing the, what do they call hand-me-downs?

Yeah.

And you don't forget that. And you do know which family can afford the nice sneakers that you can't afford. All right. Take us from that extraordinary experience to how you got involved in politics.

Well, I, I grew up a lot going between Westchester and the Bronx. And so you start to kind of see politics emerge and how it starts to play a role in your life as you, you know, become a teenager. And then for me in college, and I moved back to the Bronx after I graduated college, you know, my parents did everything they could. I went to public school. I graduated.

I went to Boston university, graduated BU. And I decided that I wanted to go back to the Bronx and organize around early childhood education because I felt that I didn't know what I want to do. This was right after, you know, post recession, this was around 2011. And, and I was, I felt incensed about the extension of the Bush tax cuts when, during the Obama presidency,

it was actually very radicalizing and shocking to me when I saw that when I was in college, it was that I was like, how could we reward the people who did this and abandon the millions of people who've been victimized by this massive economic crime? It was, it was shocking to me.

And, um, I moved back, uh, to, to the Bronx and I was also felt very, I felt very cynical about the politics in the Bronx. This was a time when, this is also where I saw a lot of the time of the, the limits of just a very superficial kind of racial identity politics, where we were electing, sure, lots of local politicians who were Latino and, and, and, and black and also, and just like,

um, uh, great racial diversity, but they still ascribed to the same corruption and the same, um, the, the same, just like pay for play politics that every other generation and what we had seen for very, for a very long time, this kind of, this level of corruption.

Just the color of the skin was a little different.

Yeah, exactly. And it, it, it supercharged that kind of cynicism.

Right.

Um, and not only that, but a lot of them were getting arrested for it. They were getting caught.

And it just became this thing of like, and it wasn't just me. I think there was just this community sense of like, this is not worth a damn. And so I was actually very much opposed to any idea of getting involved in electoral politics. Besides, I mean, I would vote, but, uh, outside of that, I felt that politics is just a place for wealthy people and connected people and corrupt people. And I am neither one of those things. And I, I, even if I wanted to lie, I'm not a good liar. I just felt that it

wasn't for me. I felt much more satisfied going into more direct organizing families, working with families. I worked with the national Hispanic Institute. I worked with young people around how we can organize and improve our schools and improve our education. Um, but then at that time also, um, you know, the, when I was in college, my father had gotten sick, he passed away. And so my mom was, became a single mom and, um, and we were on the brink of foreclosure ourselves as a result of both the

financial crisis and, uh, a personal financial crisis with the healthcare costs of my dad going through chemotherapy and everything like that. And so, um, um, I, I quit my job and I,

because I had to help provide for myself and my family and working restaurants at that time, you make cash, you bring home cash every day. Um, you can have more control over what you bring home as opposed to just a, a salary job. Like you can pick up extra shifts. You can do all these other things. And that's what I did. And what tending bars and yeah, I waitressed, I tended bar. I, I, that's what I did not for a summer, but for four to five years of my life. Well, and, um, it's actually

there and my experience doing that and my family's experience that led me to that, that was the most important formative political experience of my life. All right. And jump to a decision to run for the U S Congress against all the odds. Yeah. I mean, I think, um, you know, spending all of that time working in restaurants, I felt like it was really a crucible of so many different political issues. Despite the ACA being passed, neither me nor anyone I worked with had healthcare because it

was too expensive. Um, most of the people that were preparing food for other people to eat were undocumented. Uh, the food costs were a result of, you know, these big ag oligopolies and how all those costs get passed on to little people. There's just on and on and on and on the, the, the, the tipped minimum wage, you know, I would get my check once a week, my paycheck. And I would, I would peel back

the paper and unfold it. And I would see the check having 50 cents in it every week because you have to report your tips and they take, I mean, it was it, this, it just living life in America is radicalizing as a working class American. And so, um, after years of that, well, I think first of all, in 2016, you ran and it was, I don't think from, from the shirts and, and, and the dirty sneakers that you have

as a kid to, you know, opening that check and seeing 50 cents in it. We normalize this to ourselves.

We accept it. And I think really deep down the unconscious rationale that we give ourselves to accept this is

what I deserve. Like this, or this is what, this is my lot. This is what I get. Right. And when you ran in 2016 and we talked and the way it wasn't that you talked about healthcare, it was the way you heard an elected leader say, everybody deserves healthcare in this country

by the fact that they are born a human being.

That it is an essential right of our dignity and existence, especially living in the wealthiest nation in the history of this world. And it broke my brain a little bit, seeing that on a television.

And I was literally wiping a glass from behind a bar and I, I, I didn't even realize that I didn't think I deserved healthcare until I heard someone say that I did. And then hearing that I was like,

why don't we have these things? This is right. This is, we are living in an absurdity. Getting a 60 cent paycheck makes no sense. And it was very radicalizing for me. And, um, and you know, not only that, and I'm not saying this just to blow smoke at you. But also when you were

the first presidential candidate to come to the Bronx since Bobby Kennedy in 1968.

And you know what? You may not know this. We were told not to go. There had been a murder in the area

a few within the week and the cops said, look, cause you know, we don't, it's not a good idea.

There could be disturbances and everything else. It was a wonderful event.

It was. And I, I, I volunteered.

I didn't know that.

I volunteered.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome. You're welcome. We helped set it up. We helped, you know, we, we had, uh,

we, we had like a, you know, the campaign set up like a, uh, an office, an organizing office.

And I was there 5 AM. We're hanging door hangers on people's doors.

And we had 10,000 people.

And we had, and there was overflow and it was, it, it was so important because prior to that, there were only, you were the, you were the first since Bobby Kennedy as a candidate, but the only other in between that time was Ronald Reagan, who came to the South Bronx and, and compared it to Dresden and left to post-World War II Dresden and left.

And you're going there really like it was, it was shocking because nobody cares about us.

We're a deep blue community in a deep blue city, in a deep blue state.

I, there is no electoral incentive to care about us. And you went there and we're a borough that doesn't have the highest vote turnout either because of the cynicism, because of this internalized apathy.

And I was like, holy shit.

We're doing it. We're, we're making ourselves matter. We're making ourselves matter.

And, um, and that was such a fantastic day in St. Mary's park.

And I was one of the volunteers there. We helped advance and set up the event.

And then I got to be part of the crowd. And, um, and it really meant something to me.

And after that race, I, I dove back into organizing. I, I, uh, got involved, um, with Black Lives Matter.

I went to Standing Rock, um, in order to fight the Keystone XL pipeline.

And it was after those experiences that I had kind of felt, for me, I think that my family, my background, the way that I'm raised, and also what has informed my politics, even intellectually, is very much the spiritual undercurrent of, of a left politics, especially in America, liberation theology, the civil rights movement.

Was your family Catholic?

My, my family, my family, well, my father's Catholic. I was raised Catholic.

And my mother, my mother's side of the family in Puerto Rico is more Pentecostal.

And so, um, I had felt at that point that I was just, I felt ready to just devote myself in a much fuller sense in my life to a greater struggle for justice. And I didn't know what that meant.

Um, and then, uh, there was, then people started calling attention to our local congressman, who was a party boss. I remember looking him up and my family's lived in the Bronx for over 30, for, I mean, way longer than 30 years, but like, since I was born, but my, my dad too, since he was born. And I remember looking up this guy and I was like, I've never seen this man in my life. Like, not once ever. I was like, who is this? And I kind of thought, you know,

if I haven't seen him, and if I don't know who he is, then I know that no one else knows who he is.

And you're talking about Joe Crowley, who was an up and coming leader in the Democratic

establishment here in Washington. Yeah. And, um, I, I started to dig into

what the deal was here, because how does a person

that is just completely unknown become the congressman? And I saw, and I started to follow the money of what was going on. And even though he was not very well known in the community, he was extremely well known and extremely powerful among the New York City political elite. He was not only the heir apparent to the speakership in that US House of Representatives, he was also the chairman of the Queens County Democratic Party, which was a very, which was arguably the strongest political

machine in all of New York City. And so he not only had national politics, but he also, he built that, that path to national politics by really being a powerful player in the New York City real estate. And how old were you at this time? At this time, when I was looking at this,

I was probably like 26 or 27. So you decided to take on a guy who was going to become the Speaker of the House and the leader of the Queens Democratic Party, right? Yeah, yeah. Why not? And I think the

reason for it was, um, twofold. No one else would. It was quite as crazy as you are. Yeah, no one else would do it.

It was clear that anybody who wanted any future in politics would never do this. And I wasn't particularly attached to a future of politics. So I, and we hadn't had a primary election in 14 years because this machine would intimidate, bully people out, sue them off the ballot. And it became really apparent that the only kind of person that would run would be a complete and total long shot with no chance. So I said, my goal was if we at least had a choice, if we at least forced the first primary

election in 14 years in this community, then that will have been a service. Like, let's just see if

we can get on the ballot. It's a funny story. So you got on the ballot. And what happened?

So we got on the ballot. And guess what? This is important because a lot of people like to tell revisionist history about it. And I understand there was a lot of people that played a role in that victory. But getting on the ballot, I was totally alone with just the few scrappy people in the neighborhood that were crazy enough to believe that this was worthwhile. We weren't endorsed by almost anybody. And not only that, but I mean, truly, the people who were collecting

signatures in that time were just people in the neighborhood. And I had no money, like none at all.

I had a paper grocery bag with, with a clipboard and, you know, stuff that I keep behind the bar.

I'd work my shift. I take my bag with my clipboard out. And then I go out across the Bronx and Queens.

It was, it was lunacy. It was lunacy. But there were enough people that

we were able to organize at that point that we collected the signatures to get on the ballot.

And not only that, we collected about six or seven times that so that they couldn't sue us off.

They couldn't throw us off. And after I got on the ballot, then, and we met our first goal, which was to force the first primary election in 14 years, people started paying more attention to it.

And I kept messaging. I think really, at the end of the day, the core, the core goal and the core message of our campaign was that we deserve better. It was to try to spread the gospel on this, which is

that we don't have to justify being able to afford to live. We shouldn't have to justify or need some convoluted argument as to why people should be paid enough to afford their rent.

All right. So you started the campaign. People thought you were crazy.

Yeah.

No chance at all to win.

Yeah.

And on election day, what happened?

So on election day, I never allowed myself to even

imagine myself winning because it felt way too crazy. But I also never imagined myself losing either. I just imagined myself getting to 8.59 PM, the minute before the polls close. And then just what happens, happens. But that day, earlier that day, we were canvassing, going around. I remember we were going around to the polls, making sure everything's okay. And that day I was walking down the street and this car, this family was driving down the street and there were all these

kids inside. And I was walking down the street and this local family, they look out the window and they honk and they go, Alexandria, we just voted for you. And that's when I was like, wait, we could win this thing. We could win this thing. And so the polls close 8.59 PM. And I get in the car and my friends are driving the car and my mom's in there with me. And I'm so, so nervous. And my mom's cell phone starts going off and it's ping, ping, ping. But I didn't know what the results were.

And I was like, mom, can you just silence your phone for a second? I was like, so nervous.

And we get out of the car. And I was so nervous. We didn't even have a location for a watch party.

My friend just like, let's just meet at the billiards hall. And we go to the billiards hall and we asked them to put it up on the screen. And we go up and not only am I winning, but we were up like 10 points. All right. There's a lot, a lot of things to be learned from

what Alexandria just said. And that is in many ways, what the establishment is about is a lot of money, people talking to each other. But if you can organize at the grassroots level and she's outspent a hundred to one or something, it ain't much there. I mean, there really isn't. They have wealth, they have power, but there aren't many of them. And bottom line is, and I saw that in my presidential campaign, took on Hillary. Oh my God, the entire democratic establishment,

why are you even running? It turns out there's just not many of them. And they are very far removed in many ways from the realities of working people's lives. So, I mean, what Alexandria's story is about, it's not only an extraordinary story about what she has accomplished, but I think it's a lesson for everybody. And sometimes we become a little bit pessimistic about the state of the world and where we are politically. But when you have people willing to take on big money, willing to do grassroots

organizing, who come from, you know, the working class themselves, we can accomplish great things.

All right. I want to switch gear now. I know that you and I have been criticized for our support of President Biden. You disagree with him over what's going on in Gaza. I strongly disagree with him as well. I am also supporting his reelection. Why are you supporting Joe Biden, President?

Well, I think, to me, I look at this through an analysis of power and an analysis of conditions.

I think that, I mean, when we look at the conditions that are available to us in terms of what is most receptive to mass movement politics, I think, and I maintain that it is unequivocal that mass movements have been able to be more effective under a Joe Biden presidency than a Donald Trump presidency.

And I also know that

when we look at the horrors of what is happening in Gaza, that people's feelings and understanding about this is completely understandable and justified. And I think that it is, you know,

that there are multiple things that can be true at the same time. That we can see this war machine at work and the way that it operates and puts so many innocent lives in peril. And we can also see how the NLRB has issued some of the most radical pro-labor policies that we've seen in a decade.

What I think you're saying is, in so many words, at least what I'm saying, is a re-electing Trump would be a total disaster for this country and for the world. It'd be unequivocal.

And that, you know, Biden has accomplished some good and important things. You and I were together with him talking about the climate cause, something I know you've worked on since you got elected to Congress. And I worked on solar panels, making solar panels affordable to working class Americans.

He is the first president ever to walk on a picket line, making it very clear he is pro-worker, very strongly pro-union. And when you talk about this election, I hope everybody understands,

if Trump is elected, the right of women to control their own bodies, we're going to be on the defense.

Not only is it gone, they are talking about active pursuit of criminalization.

Right. Unbelievable.

Putting women in jail.

Right. Talking about climate change. I would hope that most of our viewers understand that climate change not only is real, but unless there's world cooperation, the kind of planet we're leaving future generations is very much in question. Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax.

Biden has put more money into transforming our energy system than any president in history.

So I think, you know, what Alexandria is saying, what I'm saying is, yeah, we have disagreements with Biden. Some of them are very strong. But he has done some good things. And the hope is, if we mobilize at the grassroots level, we're going to get him to do better things in the future.

But, you know, as I've said many times, Joe Biden is not running against God.

He's not running against some perfect candidate.

Far from it.

He's running against the most dangerous president in American history.

And, you know, bottom line is you have in Trump somebody who really has spent much of his life in recent years undermining American democracy. We know our democracy is far from perfect. It's corrupt in many ways. Super PACs with billionaire funding elect terrible people. We know right now they're going against our friends, right? They're going to have a whole lot of money trying to defeat people who are standing up on this war, who are standing up for workers' rights. That's what a

super PAC, AIPAC, is doing right now. But if you have a Trump elected president, all of that is going to be multiplied a dozen times over. And literally the foundations of American democracy in this country and working with right-wing extremists all over the world.

The experiment in democracy, only a couple of hundred years old, may be over. And maybe we will go back to the authoritarian form of government that existed for so long. So I know that, you know, a lot of progressives are struggling with this issue. A hundred percent.

And I get it. But I would ask people to take a look at the alternative and to do the best that we can do.

Yeah. And I think also, because I deeply understand and have felt

this idea of, you know, we're sick of having to choose between the lesser of two evils.

And to that, I also say, it's not just about this. It's also looking and trying to actively support who people feel are heroes in our democracy, because we can do both of these things at the same time.

You have Jamal Bowman, who's up against huge corporate money in Westchester County, who is standing up and doing courageous things. We have more members of Congress now that have, that are willing to buck the establishment than we have had in decades. It was just...

No, not in decades, ever. All right. I want to say this, sorry. I know a little bit about this.

Just a bit.

All right. I was elected to the U.S. House from Vermont in 1991, took office in 1991, helped form the Progressive Caucus. At that point, you know how many people we had?

Five. All right.

I mean, I once talked to Raul Grijalva about this, and he said, the Progressive Caucus when we started, it was like me and Bernie and Barbara Lee, and it was basically a Noam Chomsky book club.

Something like that. And now you have almost 100, including something extraordinary.

Some of the best and brightest and strongest members of Congress in the modern history of this country.

And I know, again, when people get pessimistic about politics, there has never been, never been, more strong progressives, often younger people, people of color than ever.

Mm-hmm.

So we should be very proud of it. And that's what the progressive movement has accomplished.

But here's where I have a question, is that I think that that's true.

And I actually think that the greatest trick that the establishment plays on us is trying to convince us that we're not winning when we are in order to get us to give up.

But you went through such a long time of actual, deep, extreme marginalization.

Oh, marginalization?

For a very long time.

You want to talk about marginalization?

And I want to know, why didn't you give up when you were one out of 435?

All right. Let's talk about marginalization, all right?

Marginalization is getting elected to the U.S. House, defeating an incumbent.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. And the people of Vermont were very generous.

And I'll tell you a story about that election.

Well, in my state, at least, people do not like negativity.

They really don't. And they respond against that.

And my opponent became very negative and they're backfired on them, et cetera.

All right. Anyhow, get elected.

I had been in touch after I got elected with the Democratic leadership.

And saying, okay, look, I'm an independent.

That's how I was elected. That's how I will be.

But obviously, I expect to function within the Democratic caucus, right?

No problem, Bernie. I'm delighted to have you come in there.

Well, I got elected, go to Washington.

And for the first time in my life, I know I date myself here.

It turns out they had been able to research all of the things that I had said over the years about Democrats.

And somebody spread it around the caucus, conservative Democrat.

And Democrats said, well, you know, we're not quite so sure we may want you in the caucus.

I went through the first few weeks of being a member of the Congress.

I didn't have committee assignments.

Wow.

I didn't have a place to sit.

Wow.

And I chose, the committees I chose were with good progressives.

You remember, Henry Gonzalez, I'll name anything, from Texas, a really strong progressive.

John Conyers from Michigan, of course.

Those are the committees I wanted to be on.

And it took weeks and weeks before they allowed me to sit on that committee.

Was it energy and commerce?

It was banking and government operations, but it was now called government operations.

So like oversight.

Yeah.

So we had the same committee assignments.

Our freshman term.

Really?

Financial services and oversight.

But you at least got seated.

I mean, I got seated faster than you did, but you got there.

I did.

I did.

So that's called marginalization.

Yeah.

All right.

And that was on day one.

Yeah, that was on day one.

That was like, hi, welcome to the Congress, but we can't put you on any committee.

So, all right.

Life goes on.

All right.

I want to take us.

But why did you stay?

I mean, that to me.

I'll tell you why I stayed.

What am I going to do?

Walk away from the people of Vermont who had elected me.

But for years to deal with that.

Well, I stayed for many of the reasons that you described earlier.

I grew up in a family that didn't have any money.

We lived in a rent control department in Brooklyn.

I also saw kids who had fancier sneakers, nicer homes and everything else.

And it did not seem just to me.

And I also saw something, you know, what we don't talk about enough as a society is what's stress.

Stress.

Oh, my gosh.

All right.

And stress has a lot to do with economics.

You know this.

Absolutely.

People are wondering how they're going to feed their kids.

If the landlord raises the rent, you have to take your kid out of school.

Find another school to put that kid in.

What's happening to your parents?

You talked about your dad becoming ill.

Bills piling up.

Half a million people go bankrupt in this country because of medically related bills.

Well, my family had that stress.

So here was my father who came from Poland to America at the age of 17 with a nickel in his pocket.

And became a very proud American.

Never made any money.

But the idea that he could raise two kids with a roof over his head without anti-Semitism.

Wow.

Absolutely.

My mother, on the other hand, her parents came from the Russian, Poland area.

She wanted more because she was born in America.

My father was very content and never made much money, but he made money.

He had a job.

My mother wanted a house of her own.

That's what her dream was.

She didn't want to live in a rent-controlled apartment.

That was her dream.

She never achieved it.

She died young.

And the tension in our family always revolves around money.

I want this.

We can't afford this.

Can we do this?

Can you buy this?

Arguments.

And when you're a kid.

I don't know about your household.

Oh, yeah.

But the arguments sear.

Oh, yeah.

And that's what I experienced.

And I think that's what millions of people are experiencing right now.

Just tremendous stress.

So that's one of the factors that said, no, I ain't going to give up, so that's it.

All right.

Now I'm going to ask you another question that is not often asked.

You and I are self-defined as democratic socialists.

So what does that mean?

What's your vision for America?

What would you like to see if things worked out the way you'd like?

It's funny you ask this question because I was in a, I was in a congressional

kind of meeting, kind of hearing earlier today.

And I'm, I'm sitting on the dais and, and it was about technology and AI and all of this.

And this congressman who was on a, on a higher dais tonight, he says it completely straight face, totally seriously.

He says, there's something about our economic system here where all of the gains seem to be going just to the very top.

And he's like, I don't know what it is about this, but, um, it does seem to be a problem that we need to address.

And that is why I am a democratic socialist, because I believe that, um, that the people people who create value and wealth and work in our society and our economy deserve many more of the fruits of their labor.

And that I believe that democracy is not just for ballot boxes, but it is for our economy.

I believe that workers should not check their rights at the door of their workplace.

I believe that, um, people should be able to have economic rights.

I believe that, um, we must protect the essential dignity of human life.

Let me jump in there.

And I think what Alexandria is saying, it goes back, by the way, to 1936, you know, I never said that.

Franklin Donald Roosevelt.

Mm-hmm.

And basically, I'm paraphrasing, what he said is, look, it's great.

We have the Bill of Rights.

We have political rights.

You can vote every two years, every four years.

That's great.

But people deserve economic rights.

And this is a radical statement.

You hold it.

I hold it.

Are people entitled to healthcare as a human right?

Yeah.

Yes.

Are all people regardless of their income entitled to good education, from childcare through graduate school, if they want that, or they want to go to training school, whatever they want?

Yeah, they are.

People entitled to decent housing.

Yeah, I think so.

Mm-hmm.

And the point is, living in the richest country in the history of the world, this is not some utopian fantasy.

It's not.

This can be done.

And you talk about AI.

So the question, I don't know what your committee meeting was about, AI has the potential to increase productivity exponentially.

Who's going to benefit from that?

Mm-hmm.

And the CEOs were already incredibly wealthy.

So, you know, folks, what we are talking about is not fantasy.

It is concrete reality.

You live in a very, very wealthy society, which today has more income and wealth inequality than ever, ever existed in the history of America.

All right?

That's the reality.

Three people on top, only more wealth in the bottom half of American society.

You happy with that?

Is that good?

60% of people living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to put food on the table.

Can we do better?

Of course we can do better.

But to do better, you know, what Alexandria has done for a whole life, is take on very, very powerful special interests who are delighted with the status quo.

They think the status quo is just great.

Political system is great.

You're a billionaire?

Let's spend a few hundred million dollars defeating somebody.

Economic system is great.

My company is just making huge profits.

All right?

That's what we're taking on.

And I think it's an important point to bring up, what the alternative is if we do not assert ourselves and enshrine our rights and demand health care and education and the underpinnings of dignity.

Because if we do not assert this, the alternative is barbarism.

Who said that way back when?

You tell me.

A woman named Rosa Luxenberg.

That's right.

And she said, and she did this after the horrors of World War I, when tens of millions of people were killed.

And she's right.

Either we're going to have a cooperative society where we care and love each other, or you're going to have a handful of people on top whose greed is their religion.

Which is what we are contending with now.

The fact that people are choosing between medicine and rent is barbarism.

The fact that people are worried about whether they will be on the street every four weeks is barbarism.

The fact that every time a person has an ache or a pain in their body, and they're scared, that it could either be just a sore joint or cancer, but they can't find out because they can't afford the doctor.

This is barbarism.

And if we do not demand, and not only demand, but win unions, healthcare, wages, ending endless war, then we will condemn ourselves to barbarism.

And I refuse to give up.

I refuse to submit myself to that future.

That's not a life.

And so to live, we have to fight for each other.

And we have to stand with each other.

And we have to fight for this vision and this world.

And whether we live to see it or not, I believe we will.

But at the end, what matters is what we dedicated ourselves to.

And that, to me, is what makes it both successful and valuable.

And, folks, on that note,

I want to thank Alexandra, not only for being here, but for being an incredible inspiration to so many millions of young people.

You're playing an enormously important role.

Thank you very much.

Well, Bernie, I want to thank you, because I think your story is my story, and my story is your story.

All right, now we're sounding like old politicians.

Thank you.

It's true.

It's true.

You're all, you know, brushing it off your shoulder.

But it's millions of people's lives have changed just from hearing you, let alone the victories that you've had and the material changes that you've made in people's lives, including mine and my family's.

So I want to thank you.

I don't think I would have had healthcare as a kid.

I had Child Healthcare Plus in New York.

I don't know if I would have been able to see a doctor if it wasn't for you fighting for me before I knew who you even were.

So thank you.

Thank you.

All right, folks.

That's it.

See you all soon.

Take care.

All right.

I'm cutting.

What was that?

Thank you.

That was fantastic.

Thank you.

Okay.

Great.