Iraqis otherwise became combatant and would have provided something that iraqis and the region really needed. Their electricity is very spotty and is, in fact, a part of the conflict turning power on and off to different neighborhoods. It could have been done for a fraction of the multitrillion dollar cost of the iraq war and with low risk to american lives and it would be a template for something that the u. S. And rich nations could and still should do i think across the middle east and global sun belt. And so i wonder is this still any realistic possibility that a program of mass and solar energy aid to the middle east and worlds other literally hot and bothered and conflicted regions could be could plant at least a major part of this endless war and that serves no problem and instead something i think we got the point gregory. Lets hear from andrew. Im not able to comment on the feasibility of that kind of a project. But the premise of the question deserves our attention and that is to say that the result of our expectation, that military power can provide a solution to the problem. Will ultimately cost us trillions of dollars. Now, if we go back to 2003 when george w. Bush administration invaded iraq they did did not anticipate what the full cost would be, and indeed part of the judgment of that administration is their failure to understand what was had actually going to ensue. But the real point would be that the need to consider alternatives to simply further accident pendture of military power whether its solar panels or irrigation or some other program of economic development, ultimately the nurtureing, functioning, Stable Society is going to require something other than simply dropping bombs and conducting military campaigns on the ground. And i think your question makes that point very nicely. , is there a tendency towards group thinking in the pentagon in a military circle or is there a pretty robust debate that goes on before policy or implement . I dont have great insight into what they talk about in the pentagon these days because ive been out of the army for quite some period of time. But i think, i think theres group think within any institution. And as a matter of fact the older the institution probably the tighter the grip of group think. Certainly the United States military understandably the United States military wishes to sustain its status in our society. Which is to sustain its prerogative in simple terms wishes to sustain the exceedingly high level of defense spending that has come to be routine. That doesnt preclude the possibility, however, of members of the officer corps. Particularly those who have served in the greater middle east over these recent decades of coming to some thoughtful, critical conclusions about whether or not what were doing is working. I dont know. What happened in these internal conversations . My hope is indeed my bed bet is that there may be serious thinking going on within military circles, you know now that were facing this new Trump Administration i think one of the questions is, will our next president , is he the kind of guy who was willing to sit down with our fourstar military leadership and to and to be open to what they may have learned as a consequence of our recent wars . I hope he would be open doesnt mean defer. Open doesnt mean do whatever the generals want. But open means a willingness to think anew rather than simple lil continue down the same path. Laura your question or comment for andrew. Oh, hi and thank you for taking my question. I heard you, tuned in earlier are and i heard you talking about foreign oil. And my husband he works offshore, and theres im sure you know oil so low, and theres a lot of people that either has been lated off or, you know, ones that havent been laid off have taken several pay cuts. Anyway, my question for you was do you think that the reason oil is so low here is because were so getting way too much foreign oil . Question was laura oil price clear could you repeat your question im sorry. My question was do you think that reason oil has went so low here in the u. S. Because were were acquiring too much foreign oil . Foreign oil domestic oil and again, i want to add into what she had to say but you said this earlier that the wars in the middle east are kind of on autopilot now. Even though were Energy Independent in this country. I think that price of oil is a function of supply and demand. And for all kind of reasons to include the development of new sources of oil and natural gas in the western hemisphere supplies are up Osama Bin Laden dee who is supplier of last resort wish to have for their own technical reason like to have the price of oil remain low and they have the ability by controlling the bigot to a considerable extent to control price of oil so i think thats for explanation of why the price of oil is what it is, i think we should probably look, look toed saudis but to the point you remember raising im surprised by how little discussion there is of these Strategic Implication of the transformation of the Global Energy environment and the ability that we now know that the oil and gas reserve in north america are far greater than we imagined 20 or 30 years ago. I think that Strategic Implication should be huge and should promote people asking questions about why why do we still consider saudi arabia, for example, this crucial alley. Where do question still assign such importance to the persian gulf . But that discussion hasnt happened. Greg. Think cloud, florida, good evening from booktv, youre on the air. Thank you, sir. Good evening, professor basevich my question to you why does the United States have to get involved in every military action outside of our borders . Why is it that we just cannot protect our borders and be done with it . Great question, i apologize i dont know where this cough kale from. Gave him a cough drop and show you the covert book one more time. Greg were not ignoring but vamping so that professor gets a changes to tack a cough drop. Sip of water americans war for the greater middle east is the cover of the book of military history and hes going to answer your question i promise greg were not avoiding you. [laughter] a great question tell you what were going to give you a chance. Tell you what greg were going to come back to question and will not forget it but just a because of his cough lets go ahead had and hear from david in west lynn, oregon, as well, and well get him to answer both questions. Okay, david go ahead. Hi, general thank you for your service. My question has to do with saudi arabia about a year ago i heard a report that got released from the pentagon that the funding and coordination of 9 11 traced right back into central governing elements of saudi arabia. And more specifically the royal family. And i mean, all rational sort of starting position on neive would have to this could that the bin laden and house of saud close to that event. That all hands on deck for them. So knowing that, i was just wondering what the response is. Okay thank you very much. Question what we know and what we suspect. And first of all we dont know as citizens we dont know everything. But i think we what question do know is that wealthy individuals in saudi arabia have for years and decades been using their wealth to promote a radical version of islam. What we dont know some allege some suspect, but we dont know that the Decision Makers in the royal family are directly complicit in that. In other words, we know that elements within saudi arabia have promoted radicalism but dont know that royal family was in bed with Osama Bin Laden now the question is why this fancying that the United States has to employ military power to solve every problem in the world . As a great question and theres no easy answer. But i think one one part of the answer and important part of the answer is to acknowledge what you were referring to a minute ago of group and theres a strong element of group think not simply in u. S. Military had circles but to larger extent in u. S. Political circles. That imagines and indeed assert that we are the indispensable nation that the global order can not manage or police itself absent, our leadership. A conviction a further conviction that leadership means using america hurl power. I mean, there are other definition was leadership. Leadership can be lead by example. Demonstrate bit way we run our country. That our values do have value. Thatthat we do things in ways tt other nations may wish to to embrace so this mindset i think is incredibly powerful and i think this is where it becomes interesting to think about what trump is going to do. Because he is not of that establishment. Indeed in many rpghts he got elected because he says, were going to drain the swamp. Were going to take down this establishment. I dont know that hell even try to do and i dont believe that hes succeed but to the extent that he succeeds or tries one of the interesting things to say whats his alternative . To this washington mindset and this conviction that we have to lead, lead the world and leading the world somehow has requires that use of military power. Lets hear from gary in southfield, massachusetts. Gary youre the lasted word. Thank you. Thanks for cspan. And doctor, drps vich i get a feeling that you want the country to become isolationists. I dont feel like we can get out of the area that were in. I think we have to let our new administration go in there and get rid of these people that want to kill us. I dont i dont feel its going to do anything and when you talk about draining the swamp, i dont feel whats been going on with our country has been good for the people of our country. Weve become and not a Democratic Society anymore. And i think were going to get back to that. And the people have been sick of the way things have been going on. And i hope for our sake that our new president will listen to the general and work with everyone across the aisle and get our country going in the right direction again. Because were 20 trillion dollars in debt. Thank you very much. Andrew last word. Yeah, okay. I mean, you know its funny any time anybody suggest a somewhat more restrained approach to policy, the response is oh, i guess you must be an isolationist and i reject that. Seems to me that what we should, the label we should all want to have is pragmatism what works and what doesnt work. If you think that, our efforts are used to our military in the middle east is making things better, if you believe that, then vote for it. I see no evidence of that happening. So seems to me its time for us to look for an alternative. And im not sure how many people we would have to kill in order to make the dysfunction of this part of the world go away but its going to be a great big, big number and for those who are bothered by the size of the deficit endless war. Guarantees that that deficit is going to not only continue the but is going to skyrocket so people who are concerned about about our fiscal circumstance should also be prague pragmatisn it comes to u. S. Military policy and should think very carefully before insisting theres no alternative but to dive in deeper and to a circumstance that weve already made a mess of. The book americas war for the greater middle east of military history. Andrew is the author and we appreciate you being on booktv from miami. Thank you. Well one more event tonight one more event tonight and this is senator Bernie Sanders talking about his book, our revolution. He is up in the booktv roma which is pretty well packed with people who want their senator sanders. Theyre also out on the street. Booktv has a large screen tv set up through Miamidade College showing this event. [applause] thank you very much. And this just about five minutes between my welcome to you and senator sanders. So thank you so much for being here. [applause] its a truly a pleasure to welcome you here to Miami Book Fair. This book there would not bebe possible without the support of many mini sponsors such as the knight foundation, the bachelorn foundation and many mini other sponsors as i said. We also are very grateful to the friends of Miami Book Fair international. If you would wave one more time. I would like to recognize you for your support. [applause] and, of course, miamidadee n college the convener of this outstanding literary gathering where so many students [applause] yes, lets applaud. So many Miamidade College students, faculty and staff give of themselves and volunteer in various aspects of this fair to make it what it is, so thank you to Miamidade College as well. [applause] you will be able to purchase your own book, senator sanders book immediately outside of this room so please take advantage of that following the presentation. But without further ado i would like to bring on someone who make the formal introduction this evening, hes none other than Ronald Goldfarb. Mr. Goldfarb wheres many, many hats. , hes a washington lawyer. Is also the author of 11 plus books. Er while serving as a literary agent for over 100 authors including senator sanders. Mr. Goldfarb has served in the Kennedy Administration as special assistant. And i could go on and on andte terms of as many contributions, to civic life to the Legal Affairs of this nation, and to society over all. He lives now in key biscayne but travel strictly between keyane n biscayne in washington, d. C. Please help me welcome Ronald Goldfarb. Thank you. [applause] thank you. I know you have encountered to see me some going to do something thats very difficult for washington lawyers. Im going to speak very, very briefly. Before the election i thought my wall with the kind of warmup the house with some witty remarks like mentioning how bernie does a terrific imitation of larry david. [laughter] and how a better storyline for the election would have been poor kid from brooklyn whips rich kid from queens. [cheers and applause] [applause] but after the election a week ago, i decided it that ryan witty doesnt work and ives toed those notes away. Because i know you all understand as i do that were in a very frightening political season. Bob dylans line came back to me, its not dark yet, but its getting there. That said our speak or tonight does offer an individual ray of light. With no money, no organization two years ago but with good ideas and an integrity that shines through as youll see in his word he won 22 states including i would add wisconsin, and michigan. [applause] 13 and a half million votes, 46 of the delegates. 2. 8 million done rs who gave small amounts of money but great passion for his campaign. Most interesting to me is that 70 of the people who voted in the election on the democratic side voted for Bernie Sanders. And that group that, that group is growing to be the Largest Group of voters in the country and heres something that you probably dont know. While i was driving on a bus to an airport after bernie book sold i got a call from st. Maarten colleague and their business holt a publish of book for teenager 14 to 9 and said we would love to adapt bernies book for our audience and that is going to happen too. [applause] connect for 83yearold book lover top help a 74yearold politician. Make that visionary, lead on a new generation of voters. And i just want to add with one last that is i happen had to be watching blitzer a few days ago interviewing the jane sanders, and he trying to make go ahead she deserve it is. Trying to make the story where there wasnt one who had said youve done so well in the election and your book is a best seller. Does that mean your husband is going to run in 2020 . [applause] jainls answer was, wrong question wolf, ask me that in 2019. We should be talking about 2017 very honored as they say now in his colleague say in the senate im going to yield my table to the great senator from vermont, who is going to tell us all what he will be and what we should be doing in 2017. The great, Bernie Sanders. [applause] thank you all. Thank you all for coming out. Thank you. [chanting] as i think many of you have heard me say a million times, this is not about bernie. It is about you and us. [applause] let me thank you all for coming out. Let me thank Miamidade College for hosting the event and Ronald Goldfarb for the very generous introduction. I want to talk obviously about the book but i suspect there are one or two other things on your mind. Ab so well talk about that as well. Lets get going. G. Point number one, Hillary Clinton ended up getting 1 million half more votes than donald trump, dont forget about that. So if anyone tells you that mr. Trump has a mandate to go forward with some of his very is reactionary ideas, tell them that he lost the popular vote by a million and a half votes. Number two, and this is also important and i just want all of you to understand that ive been around this country, ive been in this business for a while. What im telling you is the truth. On virtually not all but on virtually every major issue facing this country, whether it is raising the minimum wage to a living wage, whether it is pay equity for women who are now making 79 cents on the dollar compared to men, whether it is creating millions of decent paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, whether it is criminal justice reform, Immigration Reform, on all of those issues, and many more, Campaign Finance reform, on all of those issues, guess what . M vast majority of the American People are on our side. [applause]and wh and when somebody goes and tells you that republicans have some kind of mandate to cut Social Security and medicare and medicaid, want to give tax breaks to billionaires or to ignore the scientific overwhelming Scientific Evidence regarding Climate Change, tell your friend to tell you that, they are dead wrong. [applause] let me just suggest to you why i think trump did as well as he did and then suggest to you in a very broad sense where i think we have to go and well get into the book. What is going on in this country in terms of the pain that many people are feeling is not reported in the media and it is not dealt with in the halls of congress. Tunny thing in the book youll notice theres a chapter where i talk about the Corporate Media something ill talk a little bit about tonight. And it turns out and i say this not you know breaking here. But turns out somebody did a study and they said that over the course i think it was of the year, twothirds of the discussion on sunday morning news shows about poverty was from Bernie Sanders. [applause] the point is not he, the point is where the hell is everybody else . I mean how do you [applause] so what you have in our country today is a lot of pain and a lot of suffering that we dont talk about in the congress with few exceptions but certainly not on nbc or cbs or the media. And youve got millions of people out there who are saying to themselves, who hears my pain . Who know it is that i am alive . Who gives a damn about me . And one of the reasons that im going to do everything that i can to reform the Democratic Party is that i want the Democratic Party to hear the pain. [applause] i want to just run through and follow follow me for a second. Right now in miami, right now in burlington, vermont, there are single moms go to work, they need good quality child care. They make 40, 50,000 dollars a year maybe or maybe less for Child Care Cost 10 or 15,000. How do you have decent quality child care if it cost 15 or 20,000 a year and youre making 50,000 a year . Or o less . Who talks about that issue . Seen it lately seeing politicians talking about it . No, you dont. Were the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a right. Today in america, with despite the gains of the Affordable Care act, 28 Million People have no Health Insurance at all. And many of you in tens of millions of americans who do have Health Insurance have deductibles and copayments that are so high that you dont go to the doctor when you should. And then we see thousands of people dying every single year because they walk into the Doctors Office when it is too late and doctor are says why didnt you come in when you first got your symptom and person says i didnt have any insurance or i affordable deductible we lose thousands of people every single year. Right now in america, one out of five people who goes to a Doctors Office because theyre sick and they get a prescription you know what one out of those five people cannot afford to fill the prescription. Elderly people here in miami and in vermont all over o this country, you know what they do, they cut their prescription pills in half. Its a bad thing to do. Because they cant afford the medicine they need and every day, Drug Companies are jacking the price for one reason alone. Because they can get away with that. Who is hearing, who is paying attention to the people who cant afford the medicine they desperately need. Let me tell you a story about how corrupt the system is. I was out in california ksmg weeks ago working on a proposition there called proposition 61. Most of you dont know it. What it was was an effort on part of the people of california. To lower cost of prescription dplution their state. Anyone want to take a guess how much the Pharmaceutical Company spent in opposition to that proposition . Take a guess. Not a billion 131 million. 48 as i understand it 47, 48 of the people voted for it. It lost. After the industry spent 131 Million Dollar and that raises not on the issue of the high cost of prescription drugs what else does it raise, the issue of finance Campaign Reform and bring about any change in this country when the Drug Companies and Insurance Companies and Koch Brothers and other billionaires are able to spend unlimited sums of money . When donald trump talks about taking on the establishment there are workers out there who are making nine, 10 an hour. Listen and he said hes going to raise their wages and theyre making 10 you can not live on 10 an hour. Almost half of the Older Workers in america people 55 or older have no money in the bank for when they retire. Youve got that . Youre 55 60 going to retire in five years. Youve got no money in the bank youre getting sick. You need health care. How do you retire with no money in the bank in millions of people scared to death about going in to retirement. Youve got young people today right, young people who dwell in high school. They cant even afford to go to college. And then youve got others leaving college 40, 50, 60 thorks in debt making 12, 14 an hour and they dont know how they can pay off that debt. I was in during the course of the campaign and one thing i did during the book i talked about some of the places they went to and i trieded to go to places that other candidates often dont go. Spie went to mcdowel in West Virginia in southern part of West Virginia and in that county, and counties in that state and kentucky and elsewhere, turns out that people today unbelievably are now dying at a younger age than their parents. The whole drift of modern society in american around the world is as a result of Public Health as a result of medical break throughs and weve seen great breakthroughs on cancer, other illnesses, people live longer lives. There are millions of americans today in various parts of this country working class people who are dying at a younger age than their parents. They are dying as a result of drug addiction. Of alcoholism, and of suicide. In other words, the despair is so great among people who are trying to get by and nine, 10 an hour worried about their kids. They are going nowhere. And life overcomes them and they turn to drugs and alcohol and suicide. And donald trump said, i know that. I went to pine ridge native american reservation. Because i tried to focus some attention only the plight, on the tragedy that bases many native American Communities throughout our country. People who have been lied to, cheated, poem who have been ignored. In pine ridge in south dakota of Life Expectancy as i understand it is equivalent to guatemala a poor third world country. Youve suicide very high unemployment rampant. But mexican abuse, terrible. I was in baltimore, maryland, thousands and tens of thousands of people are addicted to heroin. And no treatment is available for them. I was in new york city, went to the Public Housing projects there. They have a back log of 17 billion dollars to repair Public Housing in new york city. 17 billion dollars people are living in dilapidated Public Housing and on and on goes whats my point . My point is, if you think that trump won simply because everybody who voted for him is a racist, zen phone you would be mistaken yet, yes there are those people who did vote for trump for those reasons. But i think what trump managed to tap is the anger in the frustration that so many people feel who are ignored about who are forgotten, who are suffering. And our job i will do everything in my pour a few days i became a official member of the democratic leadership. [applause] and that means, you know, what i intend to do in that position is to make it very clear that the Democratic Party cannot have too masters it cannot bow down to wall street and Drug Companies and Corporate America. [applause] and then tell the working people of this country who for the last 40 years have seen a shrinking of the middleclass. Million was whom are working longer who ares for low wages. You cant tell them that were on their side when were hustling money from wall street. So that Democratic Party has got to make it clear which side its on and im going to do everything i can to make certain that it is on the side of the working families of this country. [applause] now, during the course of his campaign and before his Campaign Donald trump has said and done some horrific things. Regarding minorities and immigrants. I want all of you not to forget that before mr. Trump was even a candidate for president , with he was a leader of the socalled bertha movement and do not mistake for one second what that socalled bertha movement was about. It was a racist attempt to junders undermine legitimate sift first africanamerican president in our history. Thats what it was. Now, you can disagree all you want with barack obama. Its called democracy. But it is not acceptable to try to undermine his legitimacy as trump did by suggesting that he was not born in the United States of america. [applause] and i hope very much that mr. Trump who is nobodys fool, i hope very much that he understands the damage that he has done to our country internally and around the world. Not only with his disrespect to the africanamerican community. But the ugly language he has used on mexican americans. Believed that we should ban people of one of the largest religions in the world mumples from coming into this country. The language that hes used which i cannot even quote regarding women and attitude towards women. I dont have to tell anybody here that for hundreds of years, from before this country became a country when the first settlers came here, and treated the native American People so horrifically from then through slavery, through sexism. Through homophobia, through the attacks and prejudices against the irish and italian and jews and every nationality that came here, the struggle for 200 years has been a fight against the discrimination. A fight to power phrase dr. Martin luther jr. That we judge people not by the color of their skin. But by their character as human beings. That has been the struggle. [applause] and when we remember, when we remember that 50, 60 years ago africanamericans didnt even have the right to vote when we remember 100 years ago, women were not running for president. They didnt have the right stroat. They couldnt get the education or the jobs they wanted. When 30 years ago no time at all people in the gay community, hid their Sexual Assault because of the retribution that were to occur to them if they stood up and said that they were gay. We have a right as a nation to be proud in how far we have come now weve got a long way to go. Racism, homophobia exist no question about it. But we do have a right to be proud. That we have gone a long, long way in fighting all forms of descridges and, in fact, what i can tell you without the slightest hesitancy that the Younger Generation of today is the least racist, the least sexist and least homophobic in the history of this country. [applause] and i say all of that, i say all of that because i want you for a moment to reflect, reflect upon those very brave people who stood up for civil rights long before Martin Luther king junior did and way back hundreds, 150 years ago people were thrown in jail, beaten, lynch fighting for justice think about the women who went on hunger strikes who went to jail. Who died and demanding that women not be second class citizens, the struggle of the gay community, et cetera, et cetera. We have come a long way and what i say to mr. Trump we are not going backwards. [applause] [applause] and all of us, almost no history understand that it is the easiest thing in the world for demagogues to pick on minorities. When people are hurting and in pain, its very easy to say there is your enemy. Enemy. Some guy whos picking tomatoes are in florida making 8 an hour. Theres your enemy. Or a little girl who wears a scarf, there is your enemy. Or some africanamerican down the street, there is your enemy. Our job, and it is the job of the majority in this country to stand with the minoritys. [applause] and on this issue, on this issue their cannot be compromised. We have come too far. We are going to defend human rights and civil rights and the rights of women in this country. [applause] and theres another area, another area which concerns me. I said all these things because in politics come in the congress, people disagree on education and health care, we disagree and we argue. But some issues i think we can a compromise. Ill give you another one. Here in miami i think youre very well aware of this. Donald trump went through his campaign because the media didnt pay much attention to but when they did, what we did learn is that he believes that Climate Change is a hoax. I am a member of the u. S. Senate committee on the environment, and in that capacity i have spoken to scientists not only throughout our country but allho over the world. The almost unanimous conclusion by the Scientific Community is that Climate Change is real, it is caused by human activity and it is already doing devastating harm in this country and throughout the world. The debate is over. [applause] and if we do not get our act together, what the scientists are telling us more drought. There will be more floods. Miami, there will be more rising sea levels. We are seeing some of that already. There will be more acidification of the ocean and the incredible impact that has on marine life. There will be more Global Climate as people fight over limited Natural Resources such as water and land to grow their crops. My hope is that mister trump understands that it is far more important to listen to the Scientific Community than it is to the fossil fuel industry. [applause] in the senate and in the house you are going to find many members who who are fighting as hard as we can against some of the ugly comments mister trump raised throughout the campaign and maybe bring forward as president but at the end of the day in my view, and i speak only for myself, we are going to win this battle not in the halls of congress where we are outnumbered. We are going to win this battle in grassroots america. [applause] and what that means, and this is not rhetoric. Trust me, this is a fact and something every american has to learn. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Every person in this room is a powerful person if you choose to exercise your power. And your power is not just voting once every two years. Your power is 365 days a year. And your power is not as i hope not just running great candidates for school board and city council and way on up , your power is figuring out how you deal with problems in bringing people together because at the end of the day, when billions of americans stand on the side of progress, stand on the side of ending discrimination, stand on the side of workers rights, stand on the side of protecting our environment, and we stand up, and we are involved, when we fight back, no power on earth , not trump, not the coke brothers, not anybody will stop us. That is what we have to do. [applause] let me say a few words about the book which is why i came here in the first place. The first part of the book that deals with the campaign. Tethose of you interested in politics i think will find it interesting and we talk about why i decided to run against the sensible opposition of my wife jane who is sitting out here someplace. [applause] she being smarter than me said i dont want to do this. By the way, one of the wonderful things and i mention it in the book is that she works and i work on is that if he won, what would happen the day after . What would Corporate America do . They would punish the American People for having voted for me, probably. What would the Corporate Media do . That was one of her worries was perception. Fortunately we didnt have to worry about that. I wish we would have but we didnt. Anyhow, we talked about campaign which has ron goldfarb mentioned. We started off with nothing. I know something about politics in my own state of vermont. In the summer, when it gets a little hotter, come visit us. [applause] where a very beautiful state,where a small state, about 625,000 people. I know how to campaign in my own state. Unfortunately, i got 71 percent of the vote so we know how to do that very well. But the senate in vermont is very different than running for president of the United States. We started off knowing virtually nothing about how to do that and we talked about what we learn, how we progressed and what i did and very often candidates say, when they are going to run they say, actually this was the case. What we did, we went around the country. I wanted to get with people who really wanted a candidacy and a candidate who was prepared to take on the political establishment. Did they really want that . And as i went around the country, as somebody who was not well known at that point, i found in meetings all over the country hundreds of people were coming out and yes, they were sick and tired of establishment politics and economics. I went around the country and finally we decided that we went forward. And then what we saw is, when you run a campaign, when you think about it, we decided for a number of reasons that we would make rallies, meetings with stargell in his office. The cornerstone of the campaign. For a variety of reasons. When politicians use people like yourselves right now as a backdrop, do you understand what im saying . You are just abackdrop for the tv cameras. I dont like that. I like talking to people. I like looking you in the eye. I like answering questions. And what we found as we went around the country that more and more people were coming out. And it is a bit of a mind blowing experience walking out in an arena in Portland Oregon with the trailblazers, the nba team and looking out at 28,000 people. So the other thing that we tried to do, we understood politically that in the primaries we have a crazy system. In that everybody in politics knows the first states are very important and the first two states are iowa and a week later New Hampshire so what we understood is what every politician who runs understood. If you do poorly in those states, you get pushed aside and you dont last very much longer. So we had to focus on iowa and New Hampshire and what we did which i love very much is i had the opportunity in a small state like iowa to go to 101 rallies and meetings and town meetings just like this, meetings exactly like this all over the state of iowa and ended up that i ended up talking personally, facetoface with Something Like three quarters of the people who ended up voting for me in the democratic caucus, isnt that amazing . [applause] that is oldfashioned politics. Thats oldfashioned, grassroots politics. When you talk to people, i asked the question and then they go out and vote. In New Hampshire the numbers were that large but we did very well. What i point out is that we got off to a good start but it is hard to do that when you have six or seven days coming up in the same day and that became large. Another point that i would relate to you and ron mentioned it as well is to run a National Campaign for president , you need to raise a lot of money. And we had no idea how we were going to work it. And suddenly, it was unbelievable. From day one through the internet, people started sending in money. It blew us away. And we ended up having 2. 8 million, separate people, individuals contributing an average of 27 to the campaign. And many of those people, the other thing is the article in the la times that i read, it was difficult to read, really made you want to cry is that it turns out that a majority of the people who contributed to the campaign, the guy who got on the phone, it turns out were below median family income. They were people getting unemployment. They were people on Social Security, a majority of the people below the Median Income level in america read that is a very humbling experience. [applause] is one thing to go to wall street and to walk out of a fundraiser with 10 million. It is another thing to get checks for 10 and 15 from people who are on Social Security. So that was an extraordinarily gratifying experience. If you would ask me, people say well, what was the most significant thing, on a personal level, i will tell you what it was. It was doing rallies at the end of the campaign in june, the last day was june 7 in california. We spent a lot of time in california. And we held rallies in their rural areas where president ial candidates work. And on a beautiful evening, there would be five, 6000 people coming out. Often young latino kids, africanamerican kids. Native americans and you look out in the crowd and it was such a diverseaudience. Such beautiful young people who have such hopes for this country. That is what inspired me then and that is what inspires me today and that is what should inspire all of you area. [applause] what i want you to know, i want you to know Election Results notwithstanding there are millions of people in the country who love passionately and want to see this country become what we all know it can become. And i had the opportunity, the privilege to actually see and meet with so many of those people and that is something i will live with for the rest of my life. The first half of the book deals with the campaign, if youre interested in politics i think you will find interesting. The second half does something a little bit different. What it says is how do we go forward . We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. Thats what we are today. And there is no excuse for 43 Million People living in poverty. No excuse for ushaving the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. No excuse for having more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth. Where the top 1 10 of one percent now owns as much wealth as 90 percent. Where people in florida are working two or three jobs and yet 52 percent of all new income goes to the top one percent. So what i did in the second half of the book is i took a hard look at what i believe are the major issues facing this country area and working with some other people, we wrote down what we think the future needs in terms of going forward. Where do we go from here . It wasnt too bad but it is another thing to say okay, what do we do . Let me take a few minutes to talk about what i consider to be some of the big issues. One of the goals of our campaign which i think we succeeded in was to force debate on issues that politicians in general do not talk about and the Corporate Media almost never talks about. And one of those issues, one of those issues is my fear that this country is moving very rapidly into an oligarchic form of society. I think most americans may not even know what the word oligarchy means but it is a word that we better start understanding because that is exactly where we are moving towards. What does that mean . What it means is you have a relatively small number, a small number of very wealthy people, billionaires who increasingly control not only are economic rights but our political life as well. It means that on wall street for example, you have the sixth largest Financial Institutions that have assets of some 10 trillion which is equivalent to 58 percent of the gdp of the United States of america, six Financial Institutions. Which issue Something Like two thirds of our credit costs and one third of our mortgages. Six Financial Institutions. It means that and i talk about this in a whole chapter that it turns out you have six major media conglomerates in this country, warner, cbs and others that determine about how 90 percent, that control 90 percent of the media in america in determining what people see, hear and read. When you turn on on your tv, you think youve got 100 channels. Maybe 100 Different Companies on them, they dont. They are owned by relatively few large conglomerates which call themselves and are controlled by bigger entities. The function of media is not to educate the American People. The function of Corporate Media is to make as much money as it possibly can. And i think what we saw in this last campaign, what we saw in this last campaign and there are studies that write about this is that over 90 percent of the discussion you saw on television was not about the issues that impact your lives. It was about political gossip or about mister trump or mrs. Clinton, not about the American People. It was about pulling or Campaign Funds or how much people raised. The terrible things that people said about each other. We need a media among other things that starts talking about the real issues facing the American People. Not just the candidates area. [applause] and we have a chapter that talks not just about oligarchy, where we are but how we and a rape economy. What does a rigged economy mean . It means over the last 20, 30 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth in this country. And that transfer has gone from your pockets or the pockets of middleclass to the pockets of the top 1 10 of one percent. A massive transfer of wealth. We talk about how do we create an economy, to paraphrase pope francis based on moral principles rather than greed. And these are some of the things that have to be worked on. Weve got to determine as a principal in our economy that if you work 40 hours a week , you do not live in poverty. That means raising the minimum wage to a living wage. We raise the minimum wage to a living wage of 15 per hour , millions of people would be taken out of poverty and would be able to live lives of dignity, spending time with their kids. Not under incredible stress. It means that in the year 2016 when we talk about jobs and the economy, we have got to end the disgrace of women making . 79 on the dollar impaired men. [applause] it means when we talk about the economy, we have to understand that the unemployment figures you see once a month, but come out from the government, the official Unemployment Rate which nationally is five percent is different then the real Unemployment Rate in this country which isover nine percent , including if you include people working parttime when they want to work fulltime or people in high unemployment areas who have given up looking for work. So you have in real terms nine percent of the population unemployed and that means we need a massive jobs program. We should be hiring teachers, not firing teachers. [applause] we can hire a heck of a lot of people doing the important work of child care which today is dysfunctional. [applause] we should be rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Roads, bridges, waterways. Jane and i during the campaign were in flint michigan and we had one of the most emotional evenings i think we have ever had in our life area and that is talking to a mom whose daughter had been gregarious and bright and did well in school but after drinking the lead in the water became a child in special education and had a hard time numbering simple facts and when you talk to a mom who had gone through that , it takes a lot out of you. But it is not just flint michigan that is struggling with clean water, there are hundreds of communities all over this country including some in my own state of for month. The point is that in america, we once had the best cuttingedge infrastructure in the world. The best bridges, best roads, the strongest rails, the best levees and dance, that is no longer the case. By investing in our infrastructure we can create millions of good paying jobs. That is exactly what we have to do. When we talk about the economy, common sense tells us all and we hear it at the community college, it tells us that if we are going to compete effectively in a highly competitive global economy, we need to have the best educated workforce in the world. [applause] thats kind of a nobrainer. We once did. The book goes into that. I think its 30 years ago. We had a higher percentage of College Graduates who attended college than any other country on earth. That is no longer the case. Were way down in the gap between us and other countries is growing wider. How do you have a workforce that can handle new jobs which require a lot of technology, advanced learning. How do you have a workforce that can do those things . We have hundreds of thousands of bright young people who cant afford to go to college area and others who are leaving School Deeply in debt. So what the book talks about is the need to get our National Priorities right, which says that billionaires like donald trump should start paying their fair share of taxes. [applause] that corporations, profitable corporations making billions a year in profits should no longer be able to stash their profits in the Cayman Islands or bermuda and not pay a nickel in federal taxes. That wall street speculation should be taxed and that when you do that, you find you do have the money you need to make publiccolleges and universities tuition free. [applause] and to substantially lower the burden of student debt on millions of people who today are in trouble. So what the book says, its kind of common sense. Who is going to argue against the fact that we need a well educated workforce if we are going to succeed as an economy or a nation . Its hard to argue. Will argue the cost of college is unaffordable with so many people who will argue that millions of our people when they leave schools in 50,000 debt, 100,000 debt, go to graduate school, medical school in the hundred thousand dollar debt. Who will argue that isnot insane . That we should be encouraging people to get the education they need, not discouraging people. [applause] again, this is just common sense. You think about everyone had but we dont talk about it so the question is how do you make this affordable, how do you make public colleges and universities affordable . There is a program out there that i played an active role in expanding, the National Health and Human Services law, very few people have heard of it. Its a great program. And what it says, its got billions into it. What it says is that if you are a doctor, if you have a problem with affordable dentistry in florida . A big problem but if you are a doctor, a dentist, a psychologist, a nurse. If you are prepared when you graduate school to serve in a medically underserved area, the government will forgive your student debt area. [applause] and that works. Its a program that works very well. I think we should expand that concept to say that at a time when we desperately need good teachers and childcare workers, people in law enforcement, that if you are prepared to serve in the public, we will forgive your debt. [applause] we talk about another issue you will hear little discussion about. Or in the halls of congress. How many major countries on earth do not guarantee healthcare to all their people . Anyone know the answer . Theres one. You are living in it. The question we ask ourselves again, and certainly not in congress, how does it happen that we end up spending far more per capita at the canadian border, we spend about double what the canadians per capita spend on healthcare and they cover every man, woman and child. He spent almost 30 times more than they do in the united kingdom, more than in france or germany and ourhealth care costs in terms of Life Expectancy , in terms of infant mortality, are in many cases worsethan many of these other countries. Thats a question we have to put on the table. And the answer as to why we are the only major country to not guarantee healthcare through i would hope a medicare for all singlepayer program, the reason has everything to do, the reason has everything to do with the power of the Insurance Companies and the Drug Companies and the medical equipment suppliers, they love thecurrent system. Last year the top five Drug Companies in america paid 50 billion in profit. The top 10 Drug Companies, paid over 300 million in compensation. It is a great system. For them. Not such a great system for ordinary americans. We have got to ask ourselves and we have to say in clear language of how we go from here to there. We can create a medicare for all singlepayer system. It will save middleclass families money, guarantee quality care for all of our people, thats an issue weve got to put on the table. There is an issue. [applause] a question, and again these are questions we need todiscuss. Why does our great country, the greatest place in america have more people in jail than any other country on earth . Why . There are a lot of reasons why but we need, and the book tries to do that. To answer that question, why is it you have a country like china four times our size and population, a communist authoritarian country that doesnt tolerate dissent terribly well and they get more people in jail than china . Why is it that over the last number of years, state after state, my state, california , probably your state has been investing enormous amounts of money in jails and incarcerations while cutting back on education and job training for young people . [applause] and i think most americans know we need reform in local Police Departments around the country. I i was a mayor for eight years and worked closely the police department, the average Police Officer as an enormously difficult job, works hard and is honored, it is a tough job. But we need the kind of training which most Police Officers that lethal force is the last response, not the first one. [applause] we need to be thinking about something that is so obvious, that to lock people up and they come out of jail, i remember doing a forum on criminaljustice in iowa. We had a couple of guys there who had been in jail. One guy said, ill never forget this. He said the day before i was released, he didnt know he was going to be released. So many said him youre getting out of here tomorrow, heres a check for 75, good luck area and then we are shocked that so many people who go to jail and a boy back into the environment that got them into jail in the first place. Shocked by the high rate of recidivism and everybody, there are people who are in jail need job training. It may need education, decent housing. They need to make sure they dont end up back in jail where we spent 56,000 a year incarcerating them. Its a lot more sense to invest in housing. [applause] one of the main issues and i am confident congress will be dealing with it, when mister trump is inaugurated will be immigration. In my view, when you have 11 Million People who are undocumented, i believe that the time is long overdue for comprehensive Immigration Reform and the path towards citizenship. It appears mister trump point of view is somewhatdifferent. And this is going to be a major, major struggle that i will tell you that during the campaign, i talked to a number of young latino boys and girls. I talked to kids who with tears running down their cheeks who are scared to death that one day after coming out of school and going home they were going to find their dad or mother had been deported. My view, we need an immigration policy which unites families, not divides them. [applause] so those are some of the issues that we discussed in the book. And the bottom line is that for me, democracy in a Civilized Society is not complicated. What it really means is that people come together, like we do here and say okay, what are the problems facing the country . And we may disagree. Some people may think this is a problem, i dont think its a major problem but thats part of the process. Then we say okay, these are the problems. What is the best way to go forward and solve it . Its not complicated. But we do much too little of that. What campaigns are about, there are people who make millions of dollars. Research for the past 50 years, every dumb thing ive ever said, theres a file this baby. Its called opposition research. Guys late make a lot of money doing this. Figuring out how you can come up with a 32nd ad to destroy somebody else. Come up with ads that are complete and total lives. And our job as citizens is to expand a democracy of a higher level area we do not accept that. [applause] so if there is anything i hope you get out of the book, that i am not looking back, im looking forward. I believe there is a willingness country, we have just got to bring people together. To create a nation in which we have an economy that works for all of us , that we do not get people in small rural towns living in people in inner cities were in trouble, that we create an economy that works for all of us and not just the one percent and i believe there is a will create a political system in which billionaires do not buy elections but in which we have a vibrant marker c of one person, one vote. [applause] i want to thank you all for being here. I think we are now going to work on some questions which you have submitted so how do we go from here . Somebody is coming up. There you are. Thank you. [applause] thank you senator sanders for being here. This is our 33rd Miami Book Fair and i want to thank you for this remarkable talk you just gave, thank you so very much. [applause] whats really interesting is i probably have maybe 300 questions and the most interesting thing is , youve answered each and every one of them in the talk that you gave area so im left with one question, what is your favorite film . No, in a more serious vein, what is your favorite film . Im thinking about it, i dont know. In a more serious vein, probably the question that was the most prevalent is the question that has been talked about all throughout the book fair and that is given everything you talk about and all the importantissues that you mention , and given the politicalreality we find ourselves in now , what can we all do . I think we can, and i know everybody works hard, thats one of the things about america area people are exhausted. People work long hours, mom works, dad works and they dont have enough time with the kids. Marriages are suffering as a result but i think in these difficult times we are going to have to rethink our relationship with public life and politics. And to figure out ways and for each person it will be different, each community will be different but what i said a moment ago is what i believe that the people stand together around any and all issues, your voice will be heard. You will have an impact. Politicians are many things, they are not done. And if they see, for one example, a couple years ago virtually all republicans in the country, virtually all and some democrats wanted to cut Social Security. A number of us worked very hard with senior organizations around the country. I was able to submit a petition with i believe over 2 million names on it all over the country, people stood up, disabled veterans stood up. Seniors stood up, people with disabilities and said you cannot cut Social Security. I was on a tv show a few moments ago, a woman called in and said im scared to death. Theyre talking about cutting Social Security. We stopped those cut. In fact, during the campaign, the discussion was on how we expand Social Security. We did it because millions of people became involved in the process. Now, more than ever, youve got to pick your fight. Not everybody is going to be out on the streets every day. Youve got to pick your fight and figure out how you can be effective but think about it differently than you did yesterday. You can play a role in transforming this country. I believe that if this country, people of this country tell mister trump sorry, we are going to transform our Energy System because we have a moral responsibility for our kids and grandchildren to protect this planet, thats what youre going to do. We can do that. [applause] but in all of those things, weve got to be very smart. We got to understand we are taking on people with incredible amounts of money. People who know how to manipulate the system. People who own the media. Not some but we have a responsibility to do just that right now. It is. Is there a resource that you know people here in miami can tap into to find out which groups they ought to be able to give their support to , whether its time . There are 1 million different organizations out there. I want to mention one and not the other, but i mentioned also earlier , the Democratic Party is that resource today. I hope tomorrow to make it peaceful so i hope to make it a party that all of you feel comfortable about being in. [applause] i know that you have represented valentin to be the head of the dnc, could you talk a little bit about this . As i said earlier, in politics you have to make fundamental decisions. And the decisions are not complicated. Which side are you on . Are you on the side of the one percent that is doing phenomenally well . One percent making an extraordinary amount of Campaign Contributions . Are you on their side or are you going to be on the side of working people and families today that are struggling hard just to keep their heads above water . Are you going to be on the side of the Homeless Veterans sleeping out on the streets of miami . Whose side are you on . And i hope the Democratic Party finally makes that decision and when they do, i think theyre going to find millions of people getting involved and i think theyre going to turn around politics in this country and become once again the dominant party that they should be. [applause] someone from the audience pointed out that former representative angle from michigan tweeted something out, i hate to use the word to but he tweeted something and said forget the basket. Deplorables are finding their way into the area how in a realpolitik way you feel the senate might go. Let me Say Something about socalled this deplorables. I really dislike that. [applause] no question that some of trumps supporters are racists and sexists or homophobes, no question but that is not the majority. And one of the things that happened in this country is that people who sit down with a 200 bottle of wine or 500 dinner have not aclue of whats going on inthe real world of this country , people suffering and in pain. [applause] and the people who get their hands dirty and have a college education, my parents didnt go to college, it doesnt make them horrible. Weve got to reach out. They got to understand that a party, a Republican Party that wants to give tax breaks to millionaires and many of them what to cut their medicaid, thats not their party. How as a senator and how, i know how he we as citizens probably move but do you have, given what weve seen so far from the president elect, how do we make sure that we protect the First Amendment for a free press . The First Amendment rights for a free press and what do we do about it . How do you protect all of our rights . The answer is, if people are strong and are prepared to fight back, we will win. If not, the future may be somewhat bleak so my message is that no matter what the issue is, whether its constitutional rights, whether it is the economy, whether it is the attack on immigrants or on minorities, we have got to mobilize our people and stand firm, defend the constitution and make certain that our people get involved so that we create a government and economy that works for everybody and not just one percent. Its nothing easy, it takes a lot of work but again, i want to at a time when many people are depressed politically, think back. Think back area think back to what when some of us were still alive during the kind of segregation and racism that existed in parts of this country. Think about the role that women were forced to play 100 years ago. People struggled and they won and they made progress. That was true then, that is true today. [applause] without putting you on the spot, the next question was will you run in 2020. [applause] my wife said this, its not the right question. Because weve got to struggle tomorrow. We dont want to get hung up, and i say this with all humility and i thank you for your also port but its not about wheat me. Weve got to struggle