Wide ranging interview
Bernie Sanders speaks on future of his movement, HRC, Obama, TPP, and more
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This is very telling:
One issue that will affect working people is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade pact being pushed by President Obama. You tried to get a commitment in the party’s platform to not hold a vote on TPP, but you were unsuccessful. Are you worried that there is going to be an attempt to pass it in the lame-duck session of Congress?
Yes. The president has been adamant in his support for the TPP. I spent a half-hour with him on the phone talking about the issue. He is dead wrong, but he feels very, very strongly about it.
The corporate world virtually never loses on trade. Since I’ve been here, they always win. Wall Street, drug companies, corporate America—that is a very heavy-duty group. When they push with their unlimited sums of money, they can make things happen. I will do everything that I can to rally the American people to understand that TPP is a continuation of disastrous trade policies, and that it should not be passed.
So why does President Obama think it’s a good idea?
He sees it as a geopolitical issue. He does not pretend, as previous presidents have, that this is going to create all kinds of jobs in America. His argument is that if you abandon the TPP, you’re gonna leave Asia open to Chinese influence.
So he’s not making a NAFTA argument—that a rising tide of trade will lift all boats.
Right—that mythology seems to have disappeared. But one of the interesting things about the TPP, in particular, is not just that it’s gonna force American workers to compete against people making pennies an hour in Vietnam or slave labor in Malaysia. It also includes an investor-state dispute system. If my state of Vermont, or the United States government for that matter, passes a piece of legislation designed to protect the health of the American people or the environment, then that government entity could be sued by a multinational foreign corporation, because the legislation would impact the corporation’s future profits. As an example, Obama did the right thing in killing the Keystone pipeline, because he concluded that it would add to the crisis we’re facing from climate change. But the United States is now being sued for $15 billion by TransCanada, the owner of the pipeline, because bars governments from taking actions that limit the profits of a multinational corporation. And the lawsuit doesn’t go to an American court. It goes to a three-person tribunal, which is made up of corporate lawyers.
Under these trade agreements, the president must accede to corporate profits. If a poor country wants cheap prescription drugs for malaria or for AIDS, and a corporation says you can’t use a generic product because we can make more money by keeping the brand name, then people will die in that country, and likely the tribunal will sustain that. This is a world of insanity, and it’s enshrined in the TPP.
One issue that will affect working people is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade pact being pushed by President Obama. You tried to get a commitment in the party’s platform to not hold a vote on TPP, but you were unsuccessful. Are you worried that there is going to be an attempt to pass it in the lame-duck session of Congress?
Yes. The president has been adamant in his support for the TPP. I spent a half-hour with him on the phone talking about the issue. He is dead wrong, but he feels very, very strongly about it.
The corporate world virtually never loses on trade. Since I’ve been here, they always win. Wall Street, drug companies, corporate America—that is a very heavy-duty group. When they push with their unlimited sums of money, they can make things happen. I will do everything that I can to rally the American people to understand that TPP is a continuation of disastrous trade policies, and that it should not be passed.
So why does President Obama think it’s a good idea?
He sees it as a geopolitical issue. He does not pretend, as previous presidents have, that this is going to create all kinds of jobs in America. His argument is that if you abandon the TPP, you’re gonna leave Asia open to Chinese influence.
So he’s not making a NAFTA argument—that a rising tide of trade will lift all boats.
Right—that mythology seems to have disappeared. But one of the interesting things about the TPP, in particular, is not just that it’s gonna force American workers to compete against people making pennies an hour in Vietnam or slave labor in Malaysia. It also includes an investor-state dispute system. If my state of Vermont, or the United States government for that matter, passes a piece of legislation designed to protect the health of the American people or the environment, then that government entity could be sued by a multinational foreign corporation, because the legislation would impact the corporation’s future profits. As an example, Obama did the right thing in killing the Keystone pipeline, because he concluded that it would add to the crisis we’re facing from climate change. But the United States is now being sued for $15 billion by TransCanada, the owner of the pipeline, because bars governments from taking actions that limit the profits of a multinational corporation. And the lawsuit doesn’t go to an American court. It goes to a three-person tribunal, which is made up of corporate lawyers.
Under these trade agreements, the president must accede to corporate profits. If a poor country wants cheap prescription drugs for malaria or for AIDS, and a corporation says you can’t use a generic product because we can make more money by keeping the brand name, then people will die in that country, and likely the tribunal will sustain that. This is a world of insanity, and it’s enshrined in the TPP.
This country is over and I will be looking toward foreign nations in the next 10 years. Government been bought out
You can't get ahead by turning inward. This isn't the 17th century, Bernie.
Lord_Chief_Rocka
Superstar
IDK man I feel like he didn't really try to win
Why didn't he want to talk about her emails
Why didn't he want to talk about her emails
IDK man I feel like he didn't really try to win
Why didn't he want to talk about her emails
Bernie isn't a national figure and wanted to run an issue oriented campaign
As he says in This interview the rift between the grassroots and the DNC is wide
Wider than he thought
His comments about Obama's organizing at the grassroots is a critique many on HL including you have touched on
Now there's reports Obama is going to be working hard on organizing for redistricting
Lord_Chief_Rocka
Superstar
So in other words he wasn't doing all he could do to win
So in other words he wasn't doing all he could do to win
Probably thought he could win by touting popular issues. He went from 2% in the polls to 45% of the total vote.
Sanders isn't going to burn bridges with his colleagues in the Democratic Party. He's a US Senator and he wasn't going to isolate himself.
JahFocus CS
Get It How You Get It
Repatriation time my good brotha.
Lord_Chief_Rocka
Superstar
Maybe he couldve got that last 5%
But this is why I'm like fukk politicians. They will always put party ahead of community
he wasn't.So in other words he wasn't doing all he could do to win
I keep telling you all this... you can't spend 3 decades as an independent then jump on a major party platform when its convenient for fukking POTUS. Thats just insulting. Dude wouldn't even do that for his own state seat.
Broke Wave
The GOAT
His biggest problem was that he didn't separate Clinton from Black and Latino voters. If he could have warmed up earlier with the talk about prison reform and framed Hillary as a proponent of the Prison-Industrial complex, he could have stolen some voters in the proportional states and probably taken the lead eventually. I just don't think the Sanders campaign was prepared for such a close race ironically. They probably didn't think it would have been such a war.
he knew he was going to lose and wanted a piece of the pie once hillary was crowned.IDK man I feel like he didn't really try to win
Why didn't he want to talk about her emails
thats why he gave his endorsement to a person he had been relentlessly bashing for months as the epitome of everything wrong with politics. if he was truly principled he wouldnt have endorsed her (or ran as a democrat in the first place, would have been an independent). bern was just the latest fad politician, at the end of the day he is like all the rest, a politician
Lord_Chief_Rocka
Superstar
Sadly I think this is true.
However the fact that millennials identified with the message so much was not fugazi