-Welcome back to "Late Night".
We are here with Senator Bernie Sanders.
You have always been incredibly consistent
with your political views, and it was resurfaced
this year around New Year's that, in 1978,
your local newspaper was asking people for their
New Year's resolutions, and, in 1978 --
We can take a look at it here.
You were still very focused on things like wage inequality
and, you know, people on the bottom of the economic ladder
getting their fair shake.
So this has been something that has been true of you
through every, I would imagine, New Year's resolution cycle.
-Well, Seth, you know, I came from a family
that did not have a lot of money.
We lived in a rent-controlled apartment.
And I try very hard not to forget where I came from.
-You recently gave an interview with "The Guardian"
where you echoed what you believed in 1978
about the need for the Democratic Party
to reconnect with working-class voters.
Why is it, do you feel,
that it has been so hard to make that connection
stronger in recent years?
-Well, look, here is the reality,
and it's a reality that just is not talked about very much
in the corporate media or talked about, you know,
in the political process,
and that is, we are moving toward an oligarchy.
Now, do you hear many people talking about that, Seth?
-Every now and then, I try to bring it up.
-But, you know, it just -- And that means you're looking at
a very small number of billionaires,
a few hundred billionaires, who exercise
unbelievable control over the economic and political life
of this country,
and these guys are becoming phenomenally richer.
The rich today in America are better off than
the rich have ever been in the history of this country.
That's one reality.
And the other reality is,
you got half of our people living paycheck-to-paycheck.
People are going to work today,
putting their lives on the line, because they, you know,
may get exposed to COVID,
because they got to feed their kids.
We have 90 million people who have
no health insurance or are underinsured.
You got families that can't afford childcare.
You got all of the workers who have nothing in the bank
as they face retirement.
That is the economic reality facing America.
And because of the power of
money and campaign contributions,
those needs of working people have been long neglected.
Now, I think we are making,
under President Biden and under the Democratic Congress,
some steps forward, some progress on that.
The American -- The rescue plan was
extraordinarily important in protecting
the needs of working people.
The infrastructure bill we passed --
gonna create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.
But at the end of the day, the Democratic Party --
You know, the Republican Party
has become a right-wing extremist party.
It represents the wealthy. It represents the powerful.
Fine. I accept that.
But what the Democratic Party has got to do is
to make it clear, which side are they on?
Do you remember that old union folk song,
"Which Side Are You On?"
-That was -- We played it a lot in high school.
[ Both laugh ]
-Well, we should continue to play it,
because that is the very simple and most profound
political question there is -- which side are you on?
You know, we can disagree about nuance.
Are you prepared to stand with struggling working families
all over this country?
And are you prepared to take on Big Money interests?
That is the question.
-We have seen, you know, some organized labor win
some victories in recent months.
John Deere.
You were recently in Michigan for a Kellogg's strike.
Some nurses have won some victories.
Do you see this as a positive move in the right direction
or just very small victories?
-Absolutely. No, I think what you're seeing --
And young people at Starbucks in Buffalo, New York,
became the first Starbucks coffee shop to be unionized.
You are seeing all over this country,
with incredible courage, working people
standing up and saying to their
very powerful and wealthy owners, "You know what?
You're not going to take away our healthcare.
You know what? We deserve decent wages.
We deserve decent pensions."
And you're seeing working people all over this country
standing up and fighting back.
And to me, that is just extraordinarily impressive,
inspirational, and I think it's something
that we have all got to support.
We're involved right now in three strikes in
West Virginia and Alabama and California.
We have brave, incredibly brave, people out on strike right now
without any healthcare, without any wages coming in,
taking on powerful special interests.
So I think that is an indication of the frustration
that many workers are feeling around this country
and their preparedness to stand up and fight back,
and that's a great thing.
-When you are at these strikes,
particularly when they are in red strate--
red states -- excuse me -- like Alabama, you mentioned,
are you cognizant of or do you feel it's true
that maybe a lot of the people that you are there fighting for
are not Bernie Sanders supporters
or even Democratic voters?
-Well, that's an interesting question.
I happen to believe that with the --
If you make it clear to working people,
whether you're in Alabama, California, or anyplace else,
that you are prepared to stand up and fight
for their interests, that you have the guts
to tell the pharmaceutical industry,
"You're not going to charge us 10 times more
for a drug that they do in Canada,"
that you're going to fight for healthcare for all
as a human right, that you're going to create jobs
which pay at least $15 an hour, minimum wage that we need.
See, I happen to believe that the Republican success
in these red states among working people
is not anything that they have done, per se.
It's not that, in red states, people believe in tax breaks
for billionaires or throwing millions of people
off of health insurance or that people
in red states want to do, as Mitch McConnell does,
cut social security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
I think the reason those states have gone red
is that people are looking at the Democratic Party and saying,
"We don't believe you.
We don't trust you.
You're really not fighting for us."
And then the reasons why they go toward the Republicans.
So when I go to those states and I say, "You know what?
You're entitled to decent wages and decent benefits,
that healthcare is a human right,
that your kids have a right to go to college,
that you shouldn't be ripped off
by the pharmaceutical industry,"
people nod their heads and they say,
"Yeah, you're right, Bernie."
No different in those states than in any --
You know, Vermont or any other state.
-Well, thank you, as always, for making time for us.
When you're out on those picket lines, make sure you bundle up.
I know you're very good at it, but I do --
You know, I'm still concerned.
-Okay. Seth, thanks very much. Keep up the great work.
-Alright. Thank you so much for being with us, Senator.