>> we visit the white sands missile range museum. >> the testing that has been done out here, people think it's been mostly military testing, but it involved a lot of civilian use as well that are fired up here even today they are sounding rockets used to do atmospheric research but still a big program. >> a member of the democratic socialists of america talks about the parties political goals and its potential impact on the 2 2018 midterm elections.

>> host: area joins us from new york as the national director of the democratic socialists of america. she will be with us taking your calls until the bottom of the hour. but as a protest of the conversation what does it mean to be a democratic socialist? >> we believe we should live a life of dignity and comfort. working people make this economy work and make the society worked at the currenworkbut the currenm and political system that we have in place because of our economic system aren't working for the 99% so we believe we need a society that we've run democratically and it's our belief that there is an elite minority of people who have

rigged the economy into the political system for their own benefitbenefit so we need to wok together to take back our economy and politics and create a transform society. we are working towards that with everything from direct action to legislative clerk to electing democratic candidates. >> how did you become a democratic socialist? i came out of a union family. my grandparents and my dad were members and a lot of my extended family. i am biracial, i'm a woman. i know the world is unfair and i was an activist and went to college i was an activist during feminism and that appealed to me because i felt the movement wasn't speaking to the needs of people like mine and other people discriminated against

because she is latina and people like my grandmother was a poor housewife, the wife of a minor and struggled to make an so i had a moment where i heard there's an economic system that structured by people that currently have the power to keep their power and that's when i had an epiphany and realized i was a socialist myself. >> host: how did you become the director? >> guest: i became active when i was a student to have organizations i became active in ouour young democratic socialiss chapter at my school and after college i went into organizing and realized they don't listen unless people stand together across their differences and i learned in order to win the working conditions people have to demand and not let ourselves

i be divided. i was a member during that period and i learned how to theo pressure the decision-makers and when they pry your director retired i applied for the position and here we are. >> here we are taking calls and questions. (202)748-8003 otherwise republicanrepublicans to zerore, democrats and 488000, independent 748-8002. i want i to focus for a second n your relationship with the democratic party establishment and socialists of america not a political party but then organization explained the difference. >> we are not a political party but we are trying to intervene in politics because our

understanding is politicians and the governmen government have ae influence but at the same time the reason they are enacting policies is because the very wealthy owned them so we don't want to just become a political party but we need to maintain connection so we need to listen to people's issues. and organizing with many members so that we can maintain our independence from the politicians, so we want to maintain enough distance so we can hold them accountable because if we support them and they do the right thing and we want to be independent and push don't.en they >> host: you mentioned the chapters about 47,000 strong is the idea to eventually become the majority of the democratic

party? >> guest: the democratic party has millions of members but they are not quite the same as other parties, so some days we would loveha a movement that is strong enough to become another party but we are so far from that now because the way the parties have worked together to set the system up is very difficult for other parties t to become one of the two main parties and these are others but the two main parties maintain their power. there's barriers they set up that make it difficult to vote for additional parties to grow and influence. they want to popularize this idea and there is an alternative tori capitalism we hope they grw big enough to become another party or one of the dominant

partieparties are totally or toe political system itself. >> host: as you go about your work what is your relationship like with the dnc >> guest: we are pretty frustrated. we don't spend a lot of time looking at a party conflict because we believe the way to change is to organize people at the grassroots. 46% of people didn't vote and partly that is because there were racist barriers to voting in a lot of states. part because there are a lot of beer years working and that is a class barrier because people don't like their alternatives for the wall street democrats. what we've seen is they consistently elevate to support

the democrats so our belief is the best use of th the tightest organizing communitiessu in all0 states as we are doing now to build the base and organize the politically aware but unable to fight back and let their own candidates startincandidate stal level. >> host: you mentioned bernie sanders and the presidency. do you think he will run? >> guest: i hope he does. i don't know where the members will be for the democratic organizations. it is recognized after the financial crash an uprising the country was ready for a change and articulated that in a language that was accessible to millions of people and he totally changed american

politics so poor that we want to continue building on that and building the institutions so they can help other people go through the experience where i saw an an event about the social feminism or we could talk about what is happening in the rest of the world of these decisions and thenci i realized there were decisions being made by the very wealthy. so we want to create an organization around the country so that we can start political change but also supports change in election in the political system and communities working on issues like rent control, affordable housing, healthcare, pushing for medicare for all and other issues working people care about. >> host: we want to hear what the viewerste care about.

taking calls online for the democratic socialists (202)748-8003, the rightsci republicans (202)748-8001, democrats (202)748-8000, independent 748-8002. oscar is up first in virginia. democrats. go ahead. >> caller: yes, hello. i wanted to ask basically we all blamed the federal government for the social security claims specialists i've seen firsthand how the government especially social security has helped not just retirees also disabled people and i wonder as a socialist what is your take on the government itself government as a tool to help for the

progressive thoughts when we consider all the programs you would like to commit the government will always be there. can you comment on that? >> guest: absolutely. the government is incredibly important because of the scale we are talking about them and there's no way if we don't have control over the government that we can to improve the lives of millions of people. so, i understand the impulse for folks foop for example and occuy wall street to be against government because i was born the first year of the millennial set generation. i understand people my age or younger have never really seen government respond when people at the grassroots demand things and yet in the past the

government set up medicare, social security and these are programs that are there to ensure nobody has to die starving in the street as an elderly person and people canan retire with dignity and those that are disabled can have access to care through medicaid so government programs are important because if we didn't have programs like that how the affordable housing stock is being cut and we have seen it in the fact that one in four children the richest country in the world we cannot rely on the capitalist class people own for the labor to get a small amount back we can't rely on these private corporations to take care of us. we need to come together and talk about a grassroots movement

because it will take all of us standing up together and demanding change. we fight both inside government and at a political system to elect politicians that are friendly and share the politics and values but then we are also independent, so we can push them between elections and we are also organizing against corporations, whether it is or abolished campaign were we are pressuring those that are making money from separating families or whether it is our tenant organizing or our medicare for all campaign where we are targeting the profiteers. we use it to have a truly democratic society >> host: do you think your abolished campaign is working?

>> guest: if you look at the things that happened recently we have helped move the debate when we first started campaign i think it was about a month ago. we are seeing these horrific images coming from the port of children being ripped from the arms of their parents including a intense, so we thought that this was barbaric. but u.s. foreign policy both military and economic has created conditions where people need to migrate to survive to come to the united states. and it's also a situation where corporations canry send jobs overseas and corporations can move money and factorieste acros borders that working people can cross borders. it was wal wall street democratd republicans tha have helped pase free-trade agreement as

devastated the other countries come as a people are being restricted inos the way they are being restricted is because the capitalist class benefits when they have a workforce that is afraid of. so in the united states, they lose out when they are coworkers are living in fear and we know that employers like to divide people. i'm a union organizer. i saw it all the time. to divide people and when part of the workforce is afraid that makes it near for them to exploit all of their workers. so we believe that the whole immigration enforcement system is designed to benefit the ruling class can and we need to have solidarity with each other as a working class people. ..

>> indianapolis indiana good morning. >> caller: good morning. i find it interesting everybody is a victim. that is the cornerstone of your thought but if you take a step back to look at things. look at the soviet union. you thank you know economics with your false degrees you aren't trying to do good you just don't understand. so when you work with a dictator with stalin your system of economic development maybe like venezuela.

or maybe measure success when we run out of toilet paper. >> our vision of democratic socialism is rooted in american socialist thought. one union organizer said i will not be a moses to lead you into a moses into the promised land to lead back out. so those people in our society we are the ones that do the work so our vision of socialism is bottom-up and democratic we do know that capitalism is not working forro people. children are drinking poisoned water in flint. and clearly it isn't working for everyone and with millions

of people in this country have poor teeth because they don't have dental care. and then we believe and then to realize. >> caller: good morning. and to hear about the misplaced kids from different countries. has the united states citizens trying to figure out why it is going on to be reunited with their family.

>> i want to reiterate the capitalist system as we have itit now and toward american citizens. and the problem is we need to unite with working people from other countries and across our differences here in the united states from different backgrounds and different genders. i agree. it will not change until we stand up and make a change so as a union organizer the question i always ask people is who invented the name for the situation we have now and

will that change if we don't c change and do something to change the direction? that is why we are building a movement. >> democrats in new york good morning. >> caller: good morning. i am on your side. i have an idea for you to make your point valid make a video that shows two tables. one has $50000 which is the average of what americans take them pull out 22% federal and state and local taxes and show what a percentage of that pay is. >>host: why do you want to do that? what does that show?

>> caller: on the second table put down $1 billion to show the 28% of the highest rate and 5% to show that small amount of money and that 0.01% could pay one hell of a lot more. excuse my language in order to make that idea that america is a place for people should not be living. >> thank you. i completely agree. the very wealthy in this country .01% to set up the economic system. and then to be passed in september for average americans with huge tax cuts for the wealthy and as it expires the tax cuts for the wealthy do not expire and

trumpnow we know that is trying to get a potentially illegal tax cut on capital gains putting almost $100 billion back into the pocket of the wealthy and this is the money they make off of our back. we work hard and we got a little bit back after what we contributed with our labor. so when theyda accumulate that and reinvest that they actually accrue $1 billion or however much is on the table that only do they have a lot more money. but they made that by taking it out of our pockets. if we take them out of the equation we can run our society and decide where our tax dollars go.

>> a republican from los angeles good morning. >> caller: iam listening to your program i have a quotation from abraham lincoln that it has certain truth. that is no matter how much the world may question but the economic growth or instant, you cannot treat by nogislating the wealthy out of it you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it and governments cannot give to people what they first take away and that which one man receives and nothing can kill that initiative of peopley quicker to get that idea they don't have to work because the other half will feed them. the other half get the idea it does no good to work to

receive the rewards of their labors. >> my response to that is my response to many things. do you think that employers want everybody to have a job? that means they can say i don't only want to keep 25% of my wealth i want to keep 500 or 75%. you only own the workplace or the factory. employers benefit when there are a lot of people that don't have work and when people are afraid of each other and weth call that reserve and then to

pitch people against each other and then to say then it work as hard as they do but that makes it easier for them to exploit all of us. so fundamentally i disagree. most people want to live in dignity and they want jobs and those employers that benefit from the highh unemployment rate i don't agree with the premise. we need to look at the overall problem with the economy they don't want us all to have jobs. >>host: i do want to ask the story from earlier this summer

from the mexican restaurant in washington d.c. where department of homeland security secretary by a group of protesters shouting out her there were members of the dce chapteron democratic socialist of america is that something you support? >> absolutely. i support that tactic because what our government is doing on the border to the children of flint is barbaric so we believe people have resorted because institutions and with the supreme court or the white house. and then working people.

and then that whole debate missing the entire point that people are simple but it is clear the voices are not being heard. >> we are a nonviolent organization and believe in civil disobedience. and one of those tools that they use. with those strikes from west virginia public employees to withhold their labor to say we will stop right now until they give us what we need. and with public education events and also going door to door talking about things like healthcare and medicare for all.

either they are not home and a socialist. so that is so dysfunctional and doesn't serve anybody's needs except for the insurance industry. because all these other things as well. >> good morning. i'm a member of the dnc in tennessee. and 50 years ago i said the same thing your guest is saying this morning. it is the same arguments. i happen to disagree that the dnc is not addressing some of these problems.

and i think the country and the entire world as they go out and vote for her. and that democratic party platform calls for care for all. fifteen-dollar minimum wage. then the party platform was thee most liberal in the history of any political party. so personally the democratic party is the vehicle and then to help us win some of these elections were those midterm elections to help change

america. >> i want to say that many members are democrats. and the vast majority of our members would prefer the hillary clinton presidency. but the reality is hillary clinton was not able to inspire the people that we needed in that election and we need to ask ourselves why.. many people have not been listened to or have been ignored or ridiculed inside the beltway and those running on the campaign. so that is what we are fighting against. r may have a better platform now but we see that bernie sanders has introduced medicare for all dell in the

senate and in congress there is a whole caucus. and we also see other democrats claiming medicare for all. in the same as medicare for all. and then we are organized around policy and with the healthcare system. when some people got coverage and others didn't and then still to get care rationed based on their ability to pay and to undermine access to care or private insurance industry will prevent people or make money off of care and the only alternative is real medicare for all. and many of the members in the

party and they don't trust the democratic party at all. and to trust thatcr institution. >> who are the specific members of the democratic party that you think are introducing half measures and claiming victory? >> i think there are multiple bills right now. d just heard representative say last week talk about the medicare buy in plan called medicare for all that is a deliberate attempt to muddy the water. and paul krugman wrote a piece for the new york times that that means expanded care and

that is not true. we need a universal program administratively it is much more efficient with insurance executives between you andca your doctor. the problem is 20% of of the economy and if we take it away then there is a huge fight back so all of these democrats from the insurance industry will not support us. we are building a grassroots army people that part -- bernie sanders talked about that is what we are building and talking about people that have not been voting or working class that feel the system has completely ignored them getting the members elected to office and to stand up to their landlords we are

talking to folks and people are ready ready for a change with a are not organized they feel isolated but even people that have health insurance now are dissatisfied because it is expensive and hard to access care. there are things the insurance companies do to make it difficult and if we had a medicare for all system that was universal it would be simple, efficient with high quality care everybody gets the care that they need. corporate interest poisons the political system that is why as socialist is real medicare for all and fake medicare for all. >>host: maryland good morning.

>> caller: hello. i love your energy and passion i am speaking to you on a little bit older than you but is your messaging. if you talk about to abolish i.c.e. or how you do that but the point is that you want to win. change it around to reshape i.c.e. then bring people intoli the movement so change that around because you're trying to get at the root cause where the problem isn't the people on the ground. it is the people who control that need to be reshaped and done in a way that is more considerate and we do need to control our borders but the way we are doing it now has to be done a different way. the message that putsin forth to

reshape instead of abolish. >> things for the call. >> i completely agree that messaging is very important in that many people are concerned about jobs in the united states. but we are a democratic socialist we call the out the problems of the capitalist we call the out the problems of the capitalist and the whole apparatus is part of the problem. if we really talk about the root of the problem willing to say the capitalist system is indefensible and fundamentally wrong we also need to say that about immigrations and customs enforcement so with that expansion of the national tsecurity state related to zeno phobia and civil liberties not just ripping children from their parents but with the

immigration system how the global capitalist benefits from having a system where borders are open for many, for capital but not people. we need to bring that message to moree people because i believe fundamentally working people know we are interested and we are taught to be afraid of each other with economicel nationalism anti- immigrant ideas are as american as apple pie. we are all just trying to get by. it really resonated and now youre see politicians coming out with the same slogan to abolish i.c.e. we y have created a whole set of agencies to control working people and if we can challenge the idea of capitalism we also

need to challenge the idea of i.c.e. and the fact it makes us safer if we put people in prison. i.c.e. is part of the whole industrial system with immigrants in jail and i spoke how there is a whole segment of society that doesn't have jobs and they benefit from that. the same system of people loft away and if they ever get out they don't have the right to vote because they are disenfranchised it is part of a system where the very wealthy want to keep us divided from each other and afraid of eachhe other and if we are willing to challenge the economic system. i appreciate what you are saying but i want to point out just yesterday our chapter in lincoln nebraska a company that is manufacturing

surveillance technology used by i.c.e. to track immigrants we have those all over the country to understand this is an agency used against immigrants that could be used against any of us in the future so we have a common interest to support them in solidarity. >> we only have a couple of minutes left. republican from tennessee go ahead. >> good morning. >> caller: two things for clarification. during the democratic primary there is conflict between bernie and hillary supporters and the relationship of social issues like sexism and racism like economic issues how much are determined byy poverty. can you clarify that? and second in regards to social benefits and open borders bernie sanders himself said open brothers is a plot

by the coke brothers he is worried it would be to put pressure on the welfare system. how do you address that you make sure a generous welfare system is not overloaded? >> on the first question about contracting non- economic system of domination in our society and how that relates to economics were organized people in the workplaces benefit off your labor and you don't control that. i actually believe they are directly related to each other and for employers divide people based on any category they can think of age or

gender or anything else and then go after thehe weakest to breakdown the bonds of solidarity. i will point out this country was founded on stolen man one -- land. and builder economic system on the backs of slave labor that we forcibly imported from africa. i believe that racism is baked into the capitalistic system and i can say is a woman also sexism plays a huge part. i am expected to clean the house. as a woman to bear children and take care of children andli my parents when they get older and those are all things in a democratic socialist society you can have society saying that only should women not have to bear the burden but as individuals to take care of our young and elderly and our sick but in france there are

social programs were the very wealthy pay taxes and people get things like time off of work to take care of newborns. things like that so we need to take into account different kinds of oppression how capitalism interacts with that public policy we are promoting. ace question about open borders. our analysis is the very wealthy as a means of production factoring into the workplace has a benefit pitting people against each other. the reason we have very bad social services is it is systematically defended by the wall street democrats for the last 40 years. unions have been busted and other programs have been

privatized taxes in the very wealthy have been cut for the last 40 years. as people are working harder and harder but the employer is keeping all the benefits and then they don't take that money to create new jobs they want there to be unemployed people that creates competition and then that doesn't pay for the services that we need as a society like more healthcare or better infrastructure or bridges more teachers paid a wage and they are investing the money in these places. bernie sanders pointed out it's the bosses and that is the target. >> the national director of socialist of america.

if you want to check out that organization thanks for joining us in new york. >> thank you for having me.

>> people say i don't want my kid to read sad or disturbing or downbeat whatever. that isn't totally illegitimate thing to say that i want to choose as apparent when my kid understand stuff that could bring them grief but there is also a certain part that says they are 14 now when will you introduce them to the idea not everything is perfect beyond your all white number? so if those are swirled to gather to create the perfect fire of mass censorship. the pree

senator from florida. mr. rubio: madam president, mr. rubio: madam president, >> madam president we're halfway through my ap or in the united states senate i have never once spoken against or votedos against door opposed any of the national defense authorization act that have come before thena senate. the reason being despite whatever flaws we may