First published 2015
Bernie Sanders takes the Senate floor on December 10, 2010, with a simple mission: stop a tax deal that favors millionaires and billionaires. What starts as a protest against President Obama's compromise with Republicans becomes something much larger. For over eight and a half hours, Sanders speaks without pause, dissecting how corporate greed has hollowed out America's middle class while the wealthy grow richer. His words crash Senate servers as millions tune in online. Phone lines jam in his offices. The White House scrambles to counter the media attention. Sanders connects the dots between decades of policy choices that created the highest childhood poverty rates in the industrialized world while multiplying millionaires. He argues that payroll tax holidays threaten Social Security's future and that estate tax cuts reward dynastic wealth. This is more than political theater. Sanders believes only an informed, organized middle class can challenge the special interests that dominate Washington, and his marathon speech becomes a rallying cry for that movement.
Genres: biography, politics, activism, american-history
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: rallying-cry
Period: 2010
188 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform