 I've said this before and I'll say it again, capitalism is a virus. It seeks to constantly commodify every single component of our society and it cannot coexist with democracy because it's not just like, you know, capitalism will stop short of democracy itself. No, it will eat away at democracy as well so that way even that becomes a money making venture where we introduce a profit motive. And you know, if you are going to try to get capitalism to coexist with democracy then you've got to have some really, really strong controls. You have to have it written in the constitution that we will not allow capital to subvert democracy itself. But understand that since capitalism is a virus it's going to evolve, it's going to change and you can institute some type of regulation to curtail its influence but that's only temporary because capitalism will always find a way to destroy whatever it sets its sights on. But with that being said, progress is progress so even if we could find some way to temporarily curtail its influence then I think that's a victory. Now just to demonstrate how we've entered late-stage capitalism in the United States a 2014 Princeton University study shows how capitalism has corrupted democracy because doctors Gillens and Page found that policy outcomes are not driven by preferences of average Americans rather they are dictated by the preferences of elites and special interests. And this is what capitalism does. You can say that you know capitalism broke our system but if you understand how capitalism functions and you understand the fundamentals of capitalism then this is kind of what you'd expect. Of course it's going to start eating away at our democratic institutions because that's what capitalism does. The goal is to increase money. There's that incentive for everyone. It even pits us against individuals within our own family. If your brother borrows a hundred bucks from you and doesn't pay you back that could permanently strain your relationship because to survive we have to constantly be maximizing the money that we have and the money that we make. So that's what capitalism does. So we complain about for-profit private interests in health care and charter schools and private prisons and you know that's an issue right? But these capitalistic influences within these industries they get a lot more difficult to root out once capitalism starts really eating away at the democratic process itself and you know starts requiring capital for electoral success and capital as a means of influencing policy outcomes. But Bernie Sanders amazingly has been able to unilaterally subvert the capitalist status quo when it comes to electoral politics. So he's not taking campaign contributions from special interests because he knows that these contributions corrupt other politicians and influence their world view. So he's changing the game by rejecting that money and he's also trying to change the status quo. So his campaign style isn't just going to be the exception but will instead become the rule and he announced the plan to get corporate money out of politics once and for all and he is doing this by targeting corrupt institutions like the DNC and also the presidential inaugural process and I love it. So this is the issue that he wants to draw your attention to. In 2016 17 donors gave three quarters of the Democratic National Convention funding with large corporations like Bank of America, Pico Energy, Comcast and Facebook each donating over one million dollars. Their lobbyists were everywhere and filled the VIP suites. This type of corporate sponsorship is a corrupting influence and must end if politicians are going to represent the American people and when it comes to presidential inaugurations corporate donors spent tremendous amounts of money on inaugural events. In 2016 Trump's inaugural donors included AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, ExxonMobil, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and many more. Private prisons also shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars for Trump's inauguration and this is nothing new. Corporate donors to the 2013 inauguration included Microsoft, Boeing, Chevron, Genotech and numerous federal contractors. Many of these corporations have federal contracts in business that comes before Congress. It is absolutely absurd that these entities are allowed to spend enormous sums of money in an attempt to garner favor with the president and vice president of the United States. So the question is what is he going to do about all this? What is he going to do to stop that corporate influence? He's going to ban it. He's going to ban corporate influence from the DNC, the DNC convention and from presidential inaugurations. And he's also going to cap individual donations at five hundred dollars a piece. That will have a substantial influence, but to really have structural change. You also need to find a way to change the way that we finance elections. And Bernie Sanders is taking his model and he is going to try to make that the rule of the road, right? So what we need to do if we truly want lasting change, if we want to get capitalistic forces out of the democratic process, you can't just pass the law because that law will be chipped away at the courts. We'll eat away at it. You need a constitutional amendment. And that's what Bernie Sanders is proposing. So he wants publicly financed elections. And what he's proposing is a constitutional amendment to overturn Supreme Court decisions like Buckley v. Vallejo and Citizens United, which say money is speech and unlimited sums of money can anonymously be given to super PACs. Now, on top of that, he's going to pass legislation that will end super PACs entirely. That will be a game changer in and of itself. He'll also abolish the FEC and replace it with a federal election administration, which actually will have some teeth and can regulate campaign finance violations more effectively. He'll end the influence of corporations at the DNC, which means banned donations from lobbyists and corporations, Institute of Lifetime ban on lobbying for national party chairs and co-chairs. And most importantly, he's going to mandate publicly financed elections for every single race. And he'll also create a system of universal small dollar vouchers that allow normal Americans to donate to federal candidates. So this is incredibly important, incredibly important. Because the reason why we allow there to be a profit motive in health care, in education, in private prisons and basically every single sector of the economy is because capitalism, like the virus that it is, has made its way into the democratic process itself. It has corrupted democratic institutions. So that way, these for-profit vultures have more staying power within the industries that offer what should be public goods, which shouldn't be profitable ventures. Like when we talk about health care, the mere discussion of private insurance should be foreign to everyone. The fact that it's not shows how powerful capitalism is as a force. So Bernie's trying to change all of that. And this is really, really important. Now, the one area where I would offer correction is I'd say rather than just offering legislation to publicly financed elections, add that to the constitutional amendment. I get what he's saying because if we overturn, you know, Citizens United, McCutcheon, Buckley v. Vallejo, then the courts won't really have the authority to overturn something like, you know, legislation that mandates publicly financed elections. However, a future administration or, you know, a Republican-controlled Congress can just overturn that or even a Democratic-controlled Congress, you know. So these things, if you want them to have lasting power and you want to maintain capitalism, you need to codify that into the Constitution. Otherwise, you know, you could have a really phenomenal effect in the short term, but long term capitalism will come back and undo these changes. But with that being said, this really is this is what we need, at least for right now, right? This is a fix to the issues because a lot of people, I think, rightfully point out that we're not going to get meaningful legislation when it comes to climate change. We're not even going to have a chance of passing Medicare for all so long as we don't get money out of politics because these special interests who profit from these industries are contributing to these politicians and lobbying them. So we're not going to have a chance in hell of getting these things that we want codified into law unless we get money out of politics. And what Bernie Sanders has proposed here is a plan that would allow us to curtail the money, even if it's just temporarily, but curtail the money, nonetheless, in politics. And that would be huge. The impact that that would have could potentially not just be life changing, but save the planet, alter the course of history. That's how big this is. That's how substantial this is. Now, on top of that, what he's also proposing is that we ban advertising of corporate news stations if they are going to host presidential debates, because it's absolutely absurd that presidential candidates talk about health care and Medicare for all. And then CNN hosting a presidential debate will cut to commercial where they advertise, you know, pharmaceutical companies and private health insurers. That's absurd. If you're going to offer what is a public good and host presidential debates, you shouldn't be able to profit off of it. So he's proposing that on top of that, he is going to shut the revolving door in D.C. once and for all by instituting a lifetime ban on lobbying. That means if you're a member of Congress, if you're a senior staffer to someone in Congress, you don't get to leave and become a lobbyist after serving one of these industries. Nope, he will close the door to that. Now, I want you to understand why this is so bold. It's not just bold because Bernie Sanders is trying to right one of the biggest wrongs of capitalism. It's bold because this puts him directly at odds with the DNC. He is naming them. He's saying we're going to stop the DNC's corruption. And that puts him at odds with the institution that has the power to royally screw him again if they want to do. But Bernie doesn't care because this is a principled position. And even if Bernie Sanders isn't successful, just elevating this issue using his platform as a top tier presidential candidate, say, you know, we need publicly financed elections. This shifts the Overton window. This influences other candidates to adopt policies that align with this. So it's incredibly important. And Bernie Sanders week after week, I keep saying it, he proposes a new policy that would fundamentally change America for the better, change our system, change our institutions, decmodify at least the democratic process for a while until, you know, capitalism seeps back in. But for now, this is good. This is really good. We need to shift towards democratic socialism. And you do that by moving towards policies like this, where you decmodify one industry and you decmodify another one. It's about beating back the forces of capitalism. And in a way, you can say that that is incrementalism towards democratic socialism, but in the short term, this is what we have to do, right? You're not really going to get, you know, a huge fundamental change where we pass a law saying we are democratic socialism now. Like that's not something that is conceivable. That's not realistic, but this is realistic. This is something that will have a really positive impact on the country. And I absolutely applaud Bernie Sanders for being a leader now who is trying to curtail corruption. And look, he has the street cred here. Everyone else is doing big fundraisers, or they did do big fundraisers like Elizabeth Warren and then transferred the money that she got from big fundraisers to her presidential campaign. Bernie did not do that. He doesn't hold big fundraisers, right? He's not going to hold big fundraisers in the general unlike Elizabeth Warren. He is saying we're in a publicly financed elections and we are going to do a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. And we're also going to curtail the corruption within the organization that controls elections, that I will be in charge of the DNC. I cannot stress how big of an impact that could potentially have on democracy.