'I've Never Felt More Powerless': Voter Asks Bernie Sanders About WV Reps Not Meeting With Voters

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At a "Fight Oligarchy" event in Lenore, West Virginia on Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was asked what voters who feel ignored by their lawmakers can do.

Transcript

00:00Virginia currently has four members of Congress. We're down from five recently.

00:05Not one of them is willing to come here and do what you're doing, so I want to say thank you.

00:16I know that they're not willing to come here and meet with us because I have called every single office,

00:22their state offices, the D.C. offices, and they're not willing to come here.

00:27That's not on their agenda. It's not on their plan.

00:30And so my question is, as a member of Congress, what can we do?

00:35Aside from calling and writing letters and begging to be scheduled for meetings,

00:41I've never felt more powerless in my entire life.

00:44And that's saying something because I'm a native of southern West Virginia,

00:48and we're historically just a forgotten people.

00:57The answer is not an easy answer, but the answer, and by the way,

01:06one of the reasons I'm here in Mingo County is I have,

01:10I remember a little bit of my American history

01:13and the struggles that your minors fought here.

01:16So they were fighting oligarchy way back when.

01:27And some of them lost their lives in that struggle.

01:30Look, to answer your question, in my view,

01:33is you need a political revolution in this country.

01:37And what does that mean?

01:38It means that we need to start electing people

01:43who are accountable and from the working class

01:48rather than people who are busy running, raising money from billionaires.

01:56You know, so, you know, you can do things like,

01:59this is a great meeting, it's a great turnout.

02:02So you can have another one of these meetings,

02:03invite your congressperson, and say,

02:07by the way, if you don't show up,

02:09we're going to be nominating somebody to run against you.

02:17And I know that when you are taking a position on politics

02:23that represents working people,

02:24it's hard to raise money and all that stuff.

02:26I know that.

02:27But on the other hand,

02:29if you have a strong grassroots movement,

02:31this is a lot of people from Mingo County coming together, right?

02:37I will bet you there are great people in this room

02:42who can run for Congress or run for other positions.

02:47And I know it seems like intimidating,

02:50oh, I'm running for Congress.

02:51What do I know about this?

02:52What do I know about that?

02:53But if you have the desire,

02:56you can learn.

02:58You don't have to have a PhD in economics

03:00to become a U.S. congressman.

03:02You've got to have a heart and a soul

03:05that speaks to the needs of the people back home.

03:11So it ain't easy.

03:14But when you develop a grassroots movement

03:17and you've got good local leadership,

03:18these guys can be beaten.

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