Bernie Sanders Quotes

The rich are hijacking American democracy.

America is less democratic than it might be because the preferences of the ultra wealthy often outweigh the preferences of everyone else.

I'm not overly alarmist about it, but I do think there are some worrying signs, like the growing accumulation of wealth by a very small proportion of the population, plus elections in the US are much more dominated by money than anywhere else calling itself a democracy.

In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.

Five years ago, the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 decision in the Citizens United case told the richest people in America, "You already control the economy of the country. We are now going to let you control the political system as well".

Democracy derailed …. An alternative form of government …. The initiative process has become a tool for millionaires and rich special interests.

We live in a country where Wall Street owns Washington.

At the end of the day, money is just a proxy for votes. That is what makes politics so vulnerable to social media.

Do the elected officials in Washington stand with ordinary Americans - working families, children, the elderly, the poor - or will the extraordinary power of billionaire campaign contributors and Big Money prevail? The American people, by the millions, must send Congress the answer to that question.

America's corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they're privatizing democracy. All the benefits - the tax cuts, policies and rewards flow in one direction: up.

There is no reason that billionaires should crowd us out from our democracy.

Billionaires like the Koch brothers, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, and political puppet master Karl Rove should not be able to buy our elections. Secret money should not be able to drown out the voices of the American people and sell our Democracy to the highest bidder.

Our politics has been greatly impacted, for the worse, by big money and the concentration of big money.

The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy.

Rule of Dark Matter: SuperPAC dollars cannot be seen by most voters but account for most of the money in this universe.

You don't want Congress peopled by millionaires.

Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

America’s super-elite has been particularly effective at using the tools of a political democracy to protect its minority privilege.

Our democratic system is slowly being corroded and eroded by the influence of PAC money.

Almost 70 percent of the income gains of the country have gone to the top 1 percent.

This country is very good at creating wealth, but not very good at distributing it.

Today, half of the national income goes to the richest 10 percent. In 2007, the top 1 percent controlled 34.6 percent of the wealth—significantly more than the bottom 90 percent who control just 26.9 percent.

The only people whose views count in the legislation that passes are those with big money. It doesn’t matter what the great majority of Americans want. Our Congress is bought.

... our economy is gradually becoming a zero-sum game between financial wealth holders and the rest of America.

Until we make campaigns affordable, then we're going to have too many members of Congress out rattling the cup with special interest groups.