Bernie Sanders on politics, Clinton and guns: The Guardian Interview
Dan Roberts in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
@RobertsDan
Friday 18 December 2015
Q: Thank you, senator, for sitting down with the Guardian here in New Hampshire. Your schedule is pretty gruelling I can testify having followed you around for the last week in Iowa and Baltimore. One of the things that struck me was the energy in many of the rooms that you keep filling. Is that how you keep going?
A: Thats a very good question and the answer is absolutely. When I see large numbers of people who are excited, who want to see real change in this country, who want to participate in the political process, it really does. It physiologically changes me. As opposed to sometimes [when] you give speeches.
They go Oh no, these academic types, and theres not a lot energy in the room. That has an impact. So the answer to your question is yes: I feed off the energy of the people that we talk with.
Q: One of the other things thats noticeable in these rooms is just how many young people there are. That must be pretty daunting in some respects. You are almost like the voice of a generation here. What happens if you let them down?
A: You are absolutely right and if we had been sitting here six months ago, I would never have predicted that would happen and today I cannot tell why that is the case. This generation, the younger generation, are supposed to apathetic, they are supposed to be not interested in politics and yet they are flocking out there to our meetings. All the polls out there show us winning and sometimes by big numbers from [young] people, not just young people 45, 50 years of age and younger. In fact our problem now is getting to the older people and were gonna focus on that. Why thats so, I cant tell you, but I think there is a hunger out there on the part of an entire generation that understands that something is profoundly wrong in the country today and we have got to move in a very, very different direction. I am deeply gratified by that kind of support and trust that we are seeing from young people. And, youre right, the fear about letting down people is something that worries me very much. But we are going to do our best to keep the faith and to fight to create a world that they will be part of and they will be proud of.
more
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/18/bernie-sanders-interview-transcript-guardian