I think it's really important to look at the walk and not the talk, and if you look at the walk, our paths [with Hillary Clinton] are extremely divergent.
Hillary Clinton, like Bill [Clinton], you know, they're not the solution to the crisis.
My support is particularly Bernie Sanders supporters but that's drawn many [Donald] Trump supporters to start with.
Salazar, Ken Salazar, who is a big advocate for the TPP and for fracking. So, you know, since when have we learned to believe what Hillary Clinton says? And just because something has been adopted in the Democratic Party platform, you know, it's a voluntary platform so it has absolutely no traction. This was about trying to buy back the [Bernie] Sanders supporters.
Remember, Bernie [Sanders] was the guy. He was the one guy that could win this, and head-to-head he could go against [Donald] Trump and win.
I think, as a white person, I do not want to speak for a black person.
If past behavior is any indication, we're in a lot of trouble with Hillary Clinton in the White House, as well, who has promised to start a no-fly zone in Syria, which amounts to a declaration of war against Russia.
We had lead emitted in gasoline and in paint, painting generations of housing for an entire century, practically, before it was regulated. That's what I'm talking about, is that we have a regulatory system that is biased to protect profit and not to protect people. We need a much more precautionary and proactive regulatory system that is not influenced by the revolving door.
Who benefits from Wi-Fi? We all benefit from Wi-Fi. Is there an industry here? Of course, there is an industry, as well. The point is public health needs protecting. I don't think you should have to prove that there is some profiteer who might have an ulterior motive in order to protect public health.
I think public health is kind of in a very sad state of affairs here in this country.
For ISIS, the answer is to cut off their food, their water, their armaments, you know, and their funding. I don't mean literally their food and water. What I mean is cutting off their life support system.
I mean, our disaster in Libya also unleashed enormous amounts of armaments. We are the world's leading arms dealer, arming all sides everywhere. And have we made the Middle East a more secure place? We're only making it more desperate, more catastrophic and more violent.
I should mention there are many European countries right now that already protect children from Wi-Fi, so it's not like this is some preposterous idea. This is already embraced by many countries all around the world. I don't think it is preposterous to suggest that public health needs greater protection in this country, especially that of children, among whom there is a rising tide of brain cancer right now.
I don't use those terms [like Uncle Tom], and I would never speak in that kind of language.
I am honored to have Ajamu Baraka as a running mate. I think he brings enormous credibility in the disenfranchised communities, not just African American but Latino, Asian American and Native American. He is a recognized advocate for racial justice, economic justice and human rights, and I think this conversation is only just begun. It is very important.
Yet we have a voting system that forbids us from actually bringing our values into our vote, which is, in my view, quite a disaster.
African Americans, in particular, saw their cumulative wealth crash. They used to have 10 cents on the dollar of the average white family. That 10 cents on the dollar that the African American family used to have crashed down to 5 cents on the dollar, given the focus of predatory lending on the African American community and the degree to which they were really devastated by the foreclosure crisis. So yeah, I think there is a lot of disappointment out there.
I think it's a sign of a gotcha political system that's looking to take down public interest candidates that they make a big deal out of a comment to a parent concerned about the exposure of young children to Wi-Fi. Now it turns out that Wi-Fi is actually untested. A large study by the NIH [National Institutes of Health] released a month ago raised serious questions about whether kids ought to be exposed, whether young children ought to be exposed to Wi-Fi. And you know, I'm not saying they should or they shouldn't but that this should be studied. Absolutely it should be studied.
Likewise to Saudi Arabia, where we just were selling another billion dollars worth of weapons, and we're not only selling the weapons but we are complicit in the war effort in Yemen where there are also incredible atrocities and war crimes being committed.
What I hear from many people on all sides of the political spectrum is that Palestine has been so carved up now that it's very hard to imagine how a two-state solution is possible. So that's what I hear many experts say, but I myself am not committing one way or the other at this point. I do feel like it's really important to allow the Israelis and Palestinians to begin rehumanizing each other and to move forward from there.
I'm very careful not to isolate Israel on this but to make this part of a transformed foreign policy where we apply the same standards across the board. So it's not just Israel. It's also Saudi Arabia, it's also Egypt. It's where there are massive and systemic violations of human rights and international law.
This is where the question always come up, "Aren't you going to split the vote?" To which the obvious answer is: Well let's just rank peoples' choices. This is a voting system we use across the country, from San Francisco to Portland, Maine, and the Twin Cities. It's used very successfully in single-office elections like mayor. It could be used for governor.
The states have the authority to change this voting system for president, right now, in fact, if they wanted, on an emergency basis, they could adopt a ranked-choice system, which simply allows you to go to the poll, and rather than rolling your dice and deciding whether to vote your values or your fears, you get to rank your choices, knowing that if your first choice loses your vote is automatically assigned to your second choice. It's kind of a no-brainer system. It works very well.
The first time I ran for office in 2002, running for governor in Massachusetts against Mitt Romney, we actually worked with a Democratic legislator to file that bill, so that there would be no risk of splitting the vote. The Democrats had about 85% of the Legislature at that time. They could have easily protected their access to the governorship. But they refused to do so. They wouldn't let the bill out of committee.
Democracy needs a moral compass.