We're taking on very powerful forces who are concerned about one thing and one thing alone, and that is they want more and more wealth for themselves and more and more power over the economic system and the political system. And the only way that I know how to defeat that is when we organize together, [00:00:21] when we think creatively. That was Senator Bernie Sanders, who is absolutely fed up with the Democrats and is continuing to make clear to the public that they need to make some serious changes. An email he sent to supporters over the weekend also has some people raising [00:00:40] eyebrows, wondering if his next big plan is to start a third party. So let's get to what the message was, and then we'll discuss what the intention is here. He writes that the Democrats ran a campaign protecting the status quo and tinkering around the edges. [00:00:56] Trump and the Republicans campaigned on change and on smashing the existing order. Not surprisingly, the Republicans won. Unfortunately, the change that Republicans will bring about will make a bad situation worse and a society of gross inequality even more unequal, [00:01:16] more unjust, and more bigoted. Will the Democratic leadership learn the lessons of their defeat and create a party that stands with the working class and is prepared to take on the enormously powerful special interests that dominate our economy, [00:01:32] our media, and our political life? Highly unlikely. They are much too wedded to the billionaires and corporate interests that fund their campaigns. Given that reality, where do we go from here? That is the very serious question that needs a lot of discussion [00:01:49] in the coming weeks and months. Finally, in the message, he asks this how do we recruit more working class candidates for office at all levels of government? Should we be supporting independent candidates who are prepared to take on both parties? [00:02:08] And so today, Bernie continued with this attack on corruption and the corruption within the Democratic Party. Again writing on X, if the Democratic Party is to become a Democratic party, small D the first job of a new DNC chair is to get super PAC money [00:02:27] out of Democratic primaries. AIPAC and other billionaire funded super PACs cannot be allowed to select Democratic candidates. Love it. I love it too, Jake. This is something that you've been wanting Bernie to do for a long time now, specifically, hyper focus on the real issue here, which is how corruption has [00:02:46] made its way into the Democratic Party. So I agree with you on that. What I don't agree with, though, necessarily is the interpretation of this message by some on the left. Nathan Robinson, for instance, thinks, you know, he might be trying to start a new political party. Hope he starts a political party, Peter Daou says. [00:03:04] Is Bernie starting a new party? I don't think that that's what Bernie is necessarily calling for. But to be frank, I don't know what he's calling for here specifically, right. So what's your interpretation? Yeah, no, I think he's doing something that is incredibly similar [00:03:20] to what we're doing and why he's not coming on this show is a mystery to me, which we'll come back to in a second. But so before the election, not after the election, I started a populist plank here at tight. Com and I said, look, no matter who wins, whether it's Kamala Harris or Donald [00:03:36] Trump, we should all say that we're going to start a populist voting bloc. And that's the point of signing on to that, basically, that petition to say, I'm going to vote for the person or candidate or party that does these things, [00:03:53] and I don't really give a damn if they're Democrat, Republican or independent. And if you're a Democrat and you say, I'm not going to do any of those things, and I'm not going to fight for any of those things, but you owe me your vote anyway. No, no. If you don't do these things, we're not going to vote for you. [00:04:09] And so if that breaks your little corporate heart, that's for you to figure out what you're going to do with. - Not for us. - Yeah. So because you never, ever serve us, the voters or your base or populous, all you ever do is serve your corporate donors. So if you expect us to keep giving you votes when you never give us anything [00:04:27] in return, there's a really short. Well, I could say plank there, if you will. You can take a long walk off of it. Okay, so what's in the populist plank, by the way? Real quick. No more wars. Money out of politics, negotiate all drug prices. [00:04:43] Not 1 or 10 of them. Higher wages like higher minimum wage, paid family leave and banned private equity firms from buying residential properties so we can keep housing prices low. Populist left agrees with that. Populist right agrees with that. Mainstream America agrees with that. [00:04:59] Those are all above two thirds in popularity. If you can't do popular things, it's not our fault for not voting for you. It's your fault for not earning that vote. I love that. So my guess is that Bernie's not coming on the show because we said that before the election and we said it many, many, many, many times. [00:05:17] And before the election, if I'm going to keep it real. And I love you, Bernie, and I love that you're doing this. But he was in the Trump Biden camp, and that camp didn't work out too well. Okay. And I think that he's going in this direction now because he feels burned by that camp. [00:05:33] They made a lot of promises to him. And we said, we love your brother, but we think you're being a little naive. Those are corporate guys. They're never going to do the things that they promised you. Okay? And now it feels like he's come to the conclusion that we were right and he got burned by them. [00:05:49] But whenever you write in in, even if it's a mild critique of someone saying, I know you've got good intent, I know you want to go in the good direction, right direction, but I think your strategy is off a little bit. Usually they catch feelings. So, Bernie, where are you if you're going to lead this, by the way we like. [00:06:06] We would love to have the leader of the populist left actually give directions, right? So stop taking directions from Biden, etcetera. And it looks like you did that. Great, wonderful. Happy to have you back. Okay. Now when you say go against Democratic leadership, that it won't stand [00:06:24] with the working class, that creates a party for the enormously powerful special interests that dominate our economy, our media and our political life. Then why do you keep going on CNN and going to New York Times and going to mainstream media and not coming on independent media [00:06:39] that backed you all the way? So sorry, brother, but you got to start leading. This is a great step in the right direction and I appreciate it. And you could lead without us. Go on Jim Bob show or whatever. Right. But for God's sake, start leading in this direction and do not get bullied by your [00:06:56] so-called colleagues in the Democratic Party who have never been your friend. To be fair, lately, it doesn't seem like he would be bullied by his Democratic colleagues because he's been consistent. Yes. After the election, in attacking the Democratic Party for the right reasons, [00:07:12] honestly, the corruption, the fact that they were much more interested in protecting the status quo rather than serving the American people or speaking to the real economic frustrations they've been dealing with for so long in this country. And look, I hear where you're coming from when it comes to Bernie. [00:07:30] I think that he had some positive influence over Biden during Biden's term, which is why he's got a soft spot for Biden. And I'm going to be a little softer when it comes to Bernie. I've got a massive soft spot for him. And, you know, when I think about my own brand of politics and what I believe, [00:07:47] my mind always goes back to who Bernie was and what he was campaigning on in 2015 and 2016. And I know that's who he really is. I know that he wants to fight for a better country and for better working conditions and better treatment for American workers. [00:08:03] His heart is in the right place. He pursued a different strategy after being a warrior against corruption in the Democratic Party for so long. Remember, he got burned for doing that in 2016. I know we've all been burned together. Yes. Okay. Yep. But then when you turn on the people who also got burned along with you, [00:08:19] that is not helpful. Okay. And and if people haven't gotten it yet, the establishment attacks everyone who is a populist. They attack everyone who is an outsider. So if you believe the garbage that they print, well, that if I believe the garbage [00:08:36] they printed about Bernie Sanders, I think that his followers were Nazis, brownshirts, and that he was going to execute people in Central Park, all things that they said on the liberal channel, on MSNBC. Okay. But I never believed any of that stuff. And all I ever did was defend Bernie Sanders on the things [00:08:51] that he deserves defense on. So what I'm a little worried about. And you look, the reason I mentioned not coming on the show is because, look, guess they oftentimes nine out of ten times they don't do well for us. Yeah. - Interviews don't perform. - Well. So they get this stuff out of your head from old TV like, oh my God. [00:09:06] If you have access to guess, your ratings are going to be better or you're going to be better off. No, usually our ratings are worse with guests. We do it so that it informs the audience. Right. And and so. So it's got nothing to do with us personally. It's slightly hurts us personally when we have boring political guests, [00:09:22] and nine out of ten of them are boring. I hope not, Bernie, but okay, okay. But my point is. Guys, to honest here. I hear you, I hear you, but my point is that he's not coming on. The Young Turks is usually a bellwether. Okay? It tells you which way they're going. [00:09:37] So when Bernie's running as a super strong progressive, he's all over the Young Turks. He goes to the Truss. Biden strategy gone. Okay. Colin Allred is a great example. Colin Allred was running as a Justice Democrat. We asked him to come on. - Yeah. - Was he really. [00:09:52] Not? Not this time. Not this time, right. - Obviously not this. - Time. Yeah. When he first started running for the house. - Right. - Okay. We asked him to come on the show. He was going to come on. And then he heard that we were controversial, that we were too progressive. - Okay. - We're a little abrasive at times. [00:10:07] Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know why? Because we're populists. I'm sorry I didn't hold your establishment hand and go. Oh, are you okay? I'm going to be super nice to you. I trust you just to. You know, we didn't do that. I'm not just populist on policy. I'm populist tonally. [00:10:24] Sorry. Sorry that I'm not a genteel whisperer on NPR. So the minute Colin Allred bailed on us, I was like, that guy's an establishment guy. I guarantee it. Right. And eventually he withdrew from being a Justice Democrat. That's him raising his hand, going, no, no, I plan to be corporate [00:10:40] because with the rule we have is you can't take corporate PAC money. And then he drowned himself in corporate PAC money, and he said he's going to beat Ted Cruz. They always say they do. They're going to. How did that what happened? He got his ass handed to him by Ted Cruz because he couldn't differentiate himself because he takes corporate PAC money like Ted Cruz does. [00:10:57] Right. And by the way, you'll notice almost all the Justice Democrats were on this show before they got elected and almost never after they got elected. Oh, because then it becomes inconvenient. Oh, tonally, you're not pleasant and polite enough [00:11:13] to our beloved colleagues who we now love so much more than our base. So my our issue here is that we keep it real. And when we do, people catch feelings. Sad day. You don't do a revolution politely. That's not how it works. [00:11:31] I love you, Bernie. Come talk to us. That's it. That's all I'll say. But that's. I'm saying the same thing. I'm not trying to push him away. No, I'm trying to say come and lead, brother. You're the leader, not us. Yeah. Thanks for watching The Young Turks. Really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. [00:11:48] You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows and specials right after they air. [00:12:04] So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.