Graham Platner Transcript:

Uh, thank you very much, Teague. I really appreciate it.
Also, that’s probably one of the best intros I’ve had.
Being able to get chanted on by a 5-year-old is pretty perfect.
Uh, yeah.
My name is Graham Platner and I am running for United States Senate.
First and foremost, I really appreciate all of you being here.
I understand that taking time in an evening to come out and listen to me ramble is um well, it takes away your evening.
And so, I just want to say
it means a lot to me to see all you taking the time tonight to come out and and listen to me talk about what we have to do.
Uh because what we have to do is very important.
Now, I never really thought I’d be in a position like this.
Uh to be entirely honest,
up until July, Harbor Master in Sullivan was the extent of my political career as I saw it.
My background is in community organizing and local governance, planning, board, Harbor Master.
I grew up in Eastern Maine. I was born in Blue Hill, raised in Ellsworth and Sullivan.
Sullivan is where I live now.
I went to high school in Bangor. After high school,
I joined the Marine Corps.
I served overseas uh first in the Marine Corps, in the infantry and then in, the United States Army, also in the infantry.
Came back,
went to college in Washington DC at George Washington University on the GI Bill
and then moved back to Maine in 2016.
And despite a brief stint back in Afghanistan working for the State Department uh in 2018,
I’ve been back in Maine ever since.
And I’ve been able to build a really spectacular life in this state.
I was able to move back to the town I was born and raised in.

I bought a house about four doors down from the one I grew up in.
And I’ve been able to meet my wife Amy and we’ve been able to build a really wonderful existence working on the sea.

Get to work as an oyster farmer and a commercial diver.
I never thought that somebody would pay me to be a scuba diver, but that is in fact what has happened. It is a life that I love deeply in a community that I have a deep connection for or connection with and love for.

But I’ve recognized that while I’ve been able to build this life,
many of my neighbors and friends and family are struggling.
And I see that the hard work that used to be enough for Mainers to keep a roof over their heads,
the kind of hard scrabble life that we’re all so proud of,
working multiple jobs, seasonal jobs.
I mean, Maine’s the kind of state where even people with one job, if you ask enough questions, it turns out they’ve got a hobby they’ve monetized somehow.

3:02 Graham Platner
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GFxav3SPzfI&t=3m02s
Mainers have always worked hard. And Mainers continue to work hard.
But that hard work is no longer enough to keep a roof over your head.
It’s no longer enough to have access to health care.
No longer enough to raise a family. When I was growing up,
I knew guys who saved up and sent their kids to college as clam diggers.
And you can’t do that anymore. That same guy’s now taking shifts at Home Depot on top of clamming.

I knew people were sterning in the summer, plowing driveways in the winter, doing reeds.
That was enough. It was enough to raise a family.
And it isn’t now.
And in the time that that’s happened, we have all witnessed a transfer of wealth from the working class, to the ruling class, in this country at a scope that a scale… I’m sorry,
it’s a larger transfer of wealth than anything that has happened in the history of the United States.
And we’ve watched all of that happen while we have witnessed life getting harder down here in the real world, for all of our friends, our neighbors, and for many of ourselves.

4:20
In 1990, there were fewer than
100 billionaires in the United States.

Today, there are over 800.
When I look around, I do not see a state of Maine that is eight times wealthier than 1990.
We don’t have eight times the hospitals.
We don’t have eight times the schools.
Mainers are not living lives that are eight times better.
We don’t have eight times the leisure time.
In fact,
somehow we have less.
Somehow today we have less hospitals.
We have fewer schools.
Somehow today, Mainers work more and get less in a society that all of us have witnessed,
build wealth and power at levels that are frankly incomprehensible.

And everybody in this state, every working person in the state of Maine
knows in their bones that they are getting screwed.

They know it because they can see it.
We can see a for-profit health care system that does not care about paying doctors or nurses or medical support staff,
that doesn’t care about patient outcomes,
that cares only about upping shareholder value & giving big bonuses to CEOs.

We can all see a housing system that does not think that providing a roof for people is something that is a core value,
but sees it merely as a mechanism of extracting wealth out of working people.
Many people talk about the system we live in as being broken,
but I don’t think it’s broken.
I think that we live in a system that is working exactly as it was designed.
It is working for corporate interests.
It is working for billionaires.
It’s working for private equity, for Silicon Valley hedge funders, for venture capitalists in San Francisco.

It’s working for everybody that already had plenty.
But it is not remotely working for the working people of this state.
And what is important to remember is that the world that we live in right now is not natural.
It’s not organic.
It did not have to be this way.
We merely live in the outcome of policy.
Policy decisions that have been made by establishment politicians in Washington DC for the benefit of those that donate the most money to them.

And the shameful truth is that we cannot lay this blame at the feet of one political party.
Until the Democratic Party at the federal level is no longer beholden to the same corporate interests that the Republican party is,
we’re going to find ourselves back in this position
over and over and over again.
I’ve been going all over the state of Maine for the past two months mostly and something that has fascinated me is that
if the Democratic Party was run by the people in it,
it would be the party of working families.
It would be the party of labor unions.
It would be the party of taxing the rich.
It would be the party of looking to our past to big structural change that we need to make to build a better future.
It would be that party,
because everywhere I go talking to county committees to registered Dems everywhere every single one I talk to that’s the party they joined.

That’s the reason I’ve always called myself a Democrat.
But it’s been very hard these past few years as I watch a lot of the leadership in DC
beholden to the same corporate interests.

And and the only way that we change this is from the ground up.
No one is coming to save us.
Yes, you are.
No, I’m not.
I’m And I I’ll be I’m not I’m really not
because what we have to do is not enough for one person.

And quite frankly, and quite frankly, it will not be enough to just use the structures of power to get the future we deserve.

We need to build something new.
We need to build something in this state that we have not seen ever.
And that is an organized working class in the state of Maryland.
But we are going to be the ones to build it. all of us, the people of Maine.

That is the only way that this is going to work.
Because I’ll tell you, a single Senate seat is not enough to get what we need.
We need to build secondary power.
We need to build real power,
the power that comes from organized people.
And I know that we can do it
because we have legacies in this country that point us the way forward.
We have the legacy of the labor movement,
the legacy of the civil rights movement,
the suffragette movement,
the disability rights movement,
the gender equality movement,
the gay rights movement.

None of these are legacies of asking permission.
We did not get an 8 hour workday and a 40-hour work week because somebody wrote a nice letter to their congressman.

We got it because working people organized,
built power, and then fought for what they needed in the streets,
in the hills, and in the halls of power.

We didn’t get the Civil Rights Act because LBJ woke up one day and thought it was a good idea.
It took decades of work by activists and organizers across the country putting their lives on the line,
being beaten,
being murdered,
fighting to build power so that when the day came,
they could put pressure up against the system.

And that is what got us the Civil Rights Act.
These are the legacies that show us the way forward.
And they are legacies of building power.
There’s a story in this country that power is for a certain kind of person or a certain kind of institution.
That there are people with a specific last name or a certain pedigree,
a business background or an academic background.

They are the ones who are worthy. They are the ones who are competent.
They’re the ones who deserve to wield power.
And that is nonsense.
Power is for those who are willing to organize and to take it.
It’s that simple.
And that is that is the legacy now that we have to tap into for what comes next
because I’ll be honest,
it’s going to get worse.

We know that the policies of the Trump administration are not going to fix healthcare in this state.
We know that they are
not going to give working people answers about why their lives are getting worse.
We know that in many ways the administration is going to double down on protecting itself and protecting its power.

The only way that we’re going to effectively fight this
is by organizing
by tapping into those legacies
by learning that is only together that people have legitimate power that they can wield.

If we don’t do that, we will not be able to fight what comes.
If we don’t do that,
we will not be able to win elections
to send candidates to Washington that are going to represent the interests of working people.

In this society, power comes in 2 ways.
Organized money
and organized people.
We don’t have the money. They have all the money.
But we do have the people.
And the only way that we can get it to work
is by organizing.

Now, those of you in this room have organized before,
you’ll understand that it is hard on a fundamental level.

You have to go out in your community and you have to tell people what you believe.
You have to knock on doors and have conversations with neighbors that you know are going to be hard and you have to do it anyways.

because it is the only way to find common ground.
And common ground now amongst working people is what we need to find.

Because as I go all over the state of Maine,
it doesn’t matter who you voted for
when the hospital closes.

When you can no longer afford a roof over your head,
it doesn’t matter
what your voter registration says.

The working people of this state have more in common with each other than they have with anyone else.

And and we need to understand that we’ve been spending a lot of time pointing fingers left and right
when we should be pointing fingers in one direction
and that is up.

I want to be clear.
There’s a difference between finding common ground and giving ground.

I believe that a politics that’s willing to sell anyone out
will eventually sell everyone out.

I have no patience in throwing people under the bus.
I have no patience with this kind of modern idea where we think,
well, if we just sell out immigrants a little bit, we’ll get some more power.
Or if we sell out trans kids a little bit, we’ll get some more power.

That is not the answer.
The answer is finding common ground on economic issues,
on the fact that everybody in this state knows, Republican, Democrat, independent,
everybody knows they’re getting screwed.

You go around the state of Maine,
you ask every working person,
do you think you live in a system that has your best interest at heart?
No.
Nobody says yes. Nobody says yes.

Everybody knows what’s going on.
It’s on those issues that we need to find common ground and build power and fight back
because the answers are not going to come from those who’ve been in power.

The answers are not going to come from Susan Collins.
Her charade of fake moderation has worn thin.
At this point, nobody believes that she is anything but another self-interested establishment politician.
Symbolic opposition
does not reopen hospitals after Medicaid and Medicare cuts.

Concern does not bring back
Row versus Wade after you vote for Brett Kavanaaugh.
weak condemnations don’t stop the nonsense that’s now flowing from RFK Jr.’s mouth.

Maine deserves better than Susan Collins,
but Maine also deserves an alternative that is not going to be beholden to the same status quo.
And so, unlike Susan Collins,
I’m going to stand up here tonight.
I’m going to tell you exactly what I’m going to fight for when I go down to Washington, DC.

I’m going to fight to protect and expand the social security that Mainers pay into by removing the cap.

I want to fight for a billionaire minimum tax
because quite frankly, we need to use the tax code to get the money back that was stolen from the working people of this country.

I will fight to lower the cost of child care, groceries, and medications,
and
go after the corporate interests that are price gouging us on these things.

I will fight to fund schools and hospitals
because that’s where our tax dollars should be going,
not building bombs to drop on them in Gaza.

And I will fight to raise the federal minimum wage
because we have paid for three foreign wars since the last time we did that.

I will fight to expand the rights of working people by passing the PRO Act
because we need to expand the ability of American workers to join a union and have that union protect their rights.

I will fight to claw war powers back from the executive branch.
Something which Susan Collins just showed recently she has no interest in
when she voted against Senator Ka’s bill to make sure that any military action against Venezuela required Senate approval.
She voted against that.

And I will also fight to make sure that we enshrine the right to an abortion in federal law
so it is protected forever and always.

But there are two things I want to talk about a little bit more at length because they have a lot to do with my journey
and that is
healthcare and housing.

The reason that I got to build the life I got to build in down east Maine
is because I have the luck of being a disabled combat veteran.

I’m lucky enough that in my four deployments overseas,
I got blown up enough times the VA thinks I deserve health care.

And that’s an insane statement to make.
But it is that health care that gave me the freedom to build the life that I have now.
It gave me a foundation to take the risk of starting a business,
to get into working on the sea
and figuring out how I wanted to build my life and what kind of life I want to live.

I could never have done that if I didn’t get healthcare from the VA.
And I just don’t believe that in this society with the wealth and the resources that we have
that the bar to that kind of foundational support
should be having to fight in stupid foreign wars like I did.

We have the money to pay for health care in this country.
We have the most expensive health care in the world.
We pay almost three times more per capita than the next country coming up behind us.
And yet we get some of the worst health outcomes in the developed world.

And that’s because we have a health care system
that is not built around providing health care.
We have a health care system that is built to extract money and resources out of working people
and
put it into the pockets of those who are already rich.
That’s the point of the system that we have.

I think every single American deserves access to the kind of support I got.
And that’s why I’m going to go to Washington DC
and fight for Medicare for all.

Healthc care is a human right,
but so is housing.
And I get support every month from the VA,
and I put it towards my mortgage.
And that’s what allows me to own my house, have the roof over my head.

It is no surprise to me that in the last few years,
as we’ve watched the price of single family homes in this country
continue to skyrocket,
we have also witnessed the buying of those homes by private equity.

And we should simply make that illegal.
At its core, this is why I’m running.
I am running because my life shows me what you can do when you have foundational support.

I often look around Eastern Maine
and I wonder what it would look like if all my hardworking, creative neighbors didn’t have to think about premiums and co-pays and in network and out of network
and which bill to pay first
and who’s who you have to deal with,
which company you have to write back to at the right time
because it’s not about the money,
it’s about the time, it’s about the energy.

It’s about the anxiety and we can stop it.
We have the resources in our society
to make sure that every single American has access to decent health care that will not bankrupt them.

This is why I’m running.
I’m running because I believe in a better system.
I believe that we can build a better politics.
I believe that we can make a politics that is representative of and responsive to the working people of this state.
And I also believe that we need to do that.
We don’t have an option anymore.
The longer we l we wait,
the less likely it is we’re ever going to win this thing.
And we have to win this thing
because if we lose, that is a bleak future.
But I know what we’re going to.

I know that we’re going to build power
and that we’re going to win.
I know that we are going to beat back fascism.
I know. I know that we are going to protect our democracy
and I know that we are going to protect our freedoms.

But when we have, it needs to be a different kind of freedom.
Not merely a romantic freedom around protecting individual rights,
but a material freedom.
A freedom that is real.
A freedom to have time.
A freedom to build things.
To own your home, start a business,
fall in love, raise a family.

The freedom to not watch yourself get robbed by a for-profit health care system.
the freedom to watch your tax dollars going into community programs
that actually improve your and your neighbors lives
and not just fund somebody else’s genocide.

It needs to be the freedom to live a life not defined by struggle and scraping by,
but lives defined by joy, fulfillment, and dignity.
Thank you very much.
$100. >> Thank you. >> To me, that’s like a million dollars. >>
It means a lot.

Hey, pleasure to meet you. >> Working hard for you. >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. >>
Oh, hello. Was it good? I just got two thumbs up.
So, I’m assuming that that meant it was good. >>

So, now for my favorite part, which is questions.
These things are pretty informal, honestly, which terrifies my media guy.
Um, but yeah, if you’ve got a question,
raise your hand and I shall call on you.

Yes, sir. Right in the front.

Um uh as you said um the DNC is beholden to cor corporate interests and I believe the DSCC has been financing your opponent in this primary. Um I’m just curious as to why you’re running as a Democrat. >> I’m running as a Democrat because one, I am a Democrat. I’ve been a Democrat my entire life. My frustrations are not with other Democrats I meet in the state of Maine. To be entirely honest, I I very much think that if the Democratic Party was um Democratic, it would still be the party that it once was. It would be the party that I think a lot of us want it to be. And I do firmly believe that we need to remake that party, but we’re only going to be able to do it from from down here and from the inside. And I’ll just be entirely honest, the other reason is that’s where the power is. It is it is difficult to raise money. I mean I did not come into this with a bunch of cash I got to throw around. Small dollar fundraising is what we rely on. Act blue is the best way to have access to that. You can’t do that as an independent. Uh there and so there there are practical reasons to do it. But I will just say that fundamentally it’s because I want the Democratic party to be the party of labor unions. I want it to be the party of working people. I want it to be the party of big structural change again because if I’m any kind of Democrat, I’m a New Deal Democrat. And when I look at that legacy of the party, I’ll just give you a quick story. One of my favorite as a good son of Maine, one of my favorite Maine heroes as a good daughter of Maine, Francis Perkins. Francis Perkins went into the FDR administration first woman cabinet member, longest serving secretary of labor in this country’s history. Francis Perkins got us social security. Francis Perkins got us unemployment insurance. Frankly, Francis Perkins set the stage for the kind of ideology and politics that later got us Medicare and Medicaid. That is the kind of Democratic party that I believe in and I firmly believe that we can make that party because that’s the kind of party that most Democrats believe in. So that’s why. >> Yes, ma’am. >> So this is kind of a two-part. Um you say that the government is kidnapping people off the streets and imprisoning them in hellish conditions and it’s unconscionable. The Supreme Court re recently ruled that it’s okay to stop people um to find out their legal status based on appearance. How will you be able to stop that in the state of Maine? And when you say we need immigration reform, we have not passed any legislation in immigration reform since 1986. How will you influence that? >> Thank you. To the first part of your question, this is why we need to start electing people that believe in wielding power. One of the problems right now is that structurally we don’t have a lot of ways to fight back against this stuff. The Supreme Court is essentially a political activist wing now. It’s barely a constitutional body. And if we continue to treat it with respect, if we continue to treat it like it is the end all beall, we’re going to get rulings like that, which in my opinion are nonsense and unconstitutional. The idea that you can stop people because of their race. Give me a break. >> There is structural power in the Senate to deal with the Supreme Court. It’s going to matter. It’s going to uh require us to get the majority. But at that point, I very much think that we need to be exercising ethics oversight over the court. If we held Supreme Court justices to the exact same standards we hold federal judges, there is a compelling case for the impeachment and removal of at least two. But to make that happen, we need to elect people to the Senate that want to wield power like that, who understand that power matters, that it’s real, and you can use it. You can’t just point, you don’t you don’t get to point at rules you wrote yourself and say, “This is why we can’t do anything about fascism.” >> I’m sorry. That’s just utterly ridiculous. To the second part of the question, we do need comprehensive immigration reform in this country. I mean, frankly, one of the reasons why throughout administrations we continue to effectively see very similar outcomes is because despite executive orders, despite decisions, it’s all based on the exact same law. We haven’t changed the laws in any substantial fashion since the late 80s. And really, we haven’t changed it substantially since the 1970s. We built an immigration system in the 1970s for a different time. We have not fundamentally changed it. And in my opinion, one, we need a pathway to citizenship, hands down. But two, we need to have an immigration system that is reflective of the reality of the world we live in today. And honestly, that’s going to require more immigration courts. It’s going to require more immigration judges. It’s going to require us to speed up the process of applications. But those are those need to be fixed by statute. like that is a that like that is not going to be fixed by frankly a presidential administration. We need comprehensive reform on the legislative side. Yes. In the back. >> Um hi. I’m a public school teacher here in Maine and I have been for 10 years. Uh, thank you. Um, basically every day at recess I’m thinking about what would happen if an active shooter just came right onto campus. And I would like to know on a government standpoint what can happen to make our schools safer and make my job not as scary. First, thank you for your service. I mean, no, I mean that that’s not Yeah. My wife Amy was a public school teacher for 15 years and it is not an easy job and we don’t pay you enough. So, thank you for the time you put in. And this country has a problem with gun violence and we are a wash in firearms. There are more guns than people in the United States. For me, it’s very much an access issue, making sure that there is a background check with every single firearm sale. But I also support red flag laws like the ones we just passed. Limiting the access to a firearm for somebody having a mental health crisis to me seems pretty paramount in protecting our communities and protecting our schools >> and pretty obvious >> and fairly obvious. I Well, not to everybody. The um and I will just say this. I mean, I’m a I’m a lifelong gun owner. I grew up shooting and hunting. I was in the infantry. I used firearms professionally for a very long time. I’ve been a firearms instructor for a long time. I very much want to take my competence and expertise around firearms and how they function to the US Senate to make sure that when we write gun legislation, it is effective. It is legislation being written with I I just I I will just be honest. For years, I’ve watched with frustration as I have seen gun legislation get put forward that burns up a lot of political capital. But if you actually know what guns do or you understand how they function, you you see that much of that legislation would not even get you what you wanted in the first place. And I think that it’s very important that we that we write legislation that is based around, frankly, the reality of how these things work. And not to not to sound overly confident here, but I’m pretty sure I will be the most competent firearms owner to ever go to the United States Senate. So, yes, right down here. Hello, I am Jamie and I live right here in Bitterford and I am a renter. Uh, and I’m curious what you could do about renters’s rights. Um, little personal, my landlord didn’t replace our broken fridge. Our stove was caught in fire. Said it wasn’t a problem. We had to replace it ourselves. And not much is getting done. And this is I’ve been hearing this all around. And I’m curious what you can do about that for our rights. >> I’ll be honest, the the problem of uh delinquent landlords, the issue of using using rent that people need or to pay so they can keep a roof roof over their heads just as a way of extracting as much money out of someone and then providing the least possible services. It’s a huge problem in this country. I I believe that we need to have better laws around renter protections. Uh I you know I I’ll be I haven’t looked into it deeply. I’m not entirely sure if I think that should happen at the state level or the federal level. Although I will say I’m a big fan of the federal government kind of setting very specific uh requirements that need to be met and then letting states kind of do the enforcement on that if necessary. I also think that in many ways this is a this is a problem that organizing needs to fix. I’m a big fan of renters organizations, renters unions. Uh if you have the opportunity to join one, you should. That is something that we can also incentivize through frankly the protections of workers and unions. you know, the more working people we have organized, the more energy and resources that can get put into organizing efforts in communities that aren’t necessarily workplace focused. So it is a while I very much would love to see specific rules around renter protections. I also think in many ways this is one of these this is one of these places where there’s structural power that can help but there’s secondary power that we have to build as well because that’s what’s going to allow us to build the power to make sure that we get those structural wins. >> Go to the code enforcement officer. >> Yes. And definitely go to your code enfor Yeah. I mean use use the system as it exists. I will say as the former chair of the Sullivan planning board, uh, most towns actually have a lot of good language already around this stuff. It’s just that it doesn’t get enforced and it often doesn’t get enforced because people don’t even know that language exists and CEOs tend to be pretty pretty busy. So, I would absolutely recommend go to your CEO and make sure that your landlord is meeting the rules as they currently exist because chances are they’re probably not. >> Bford has a safety officer. Give them a call. >> And we have a tenants alliance for Bford. >> Oh, nice. Yeah. Tenants alliance for Bifford and Sako. >> Yes. Yes. in the green. I think it’s green. >> Thank you. Hi Graham. I want to say thank you first for this opportunity to be able to ask you this question. Um so I wanted to ask you had mentioned that your benefits that you receive as a disabled veteran are something that you believe that everybody universally should be able to benefit from as well which you know I think as a veteran you absolutely deserve those benefits. But I also agree that a fundamental uh you know welfare stimuli could be helpful. Is that something that you’ve kind of um begun writing anything about or or do you have ongoing like ideas for something like that? Because I am very interested to hear about that. >> Yeah. At the I mean I will say at the beginning at at the starting point I think it’s just healthcare. I I I firmly believe that we already have systems in place, whether it’s the VA or whether it’s expanding Medicare, that show effective systems that work in providing health care for Americans in ways that they do not have to pay at point of service. Um I and and that to me is that’s the starting point. when it comes to like further support. Um I’m I’ll be honest, I haven’t I haven’t looked into it deeply at this point. I there are a lot of conversations around UBI. Uh some of which I find compelling. Then I also worry that like if we do it in a certain way, it’s just money that gets bled back into corporate pockets. So I think it that conversation is much deeper and needs to be I think in many ways more structural in its scope. But uh for me the the thing that was most important to me personally was my health care and I think that’s the best starting point for providing those kind of services to to other Americans. >> I’m going to Yes. In the back with the mustache. Oh, there’s two. Oh boy. Uh we’ll we’ll go with the furthest back mustache. I’d like to know if you have any ideas regarding the law that achieves writing a law or making a law that achieves what Citizens United was meant to do back before corporations were people took it regards the money in politics. It’s a very important thing and I’d like to know if you can have any ideas on remedying the issue. >> I mean this is a pretty fundamental change that we have to make structural change. Uh corporations are not people. They should not be treated as such. Although what amazes me is we treat corporations like people when it comes to their money and politics, but we don’t treat them like regular people when it comes to taxing them. I mean I firmly support a amendment that would get money out of politics uh in this it’s the but this is where I don’t have a good answer here and I’ll give you I’ll tell you why in order to do that we have to build a significant amount of power in order to make this happen. We have to get the same people that have benefited off of this current system out of the system, but they’re the ones in power right now >> and we’re and they’re not going to fix it for us because why would they? In many ways, they built it. >> There’s a case coming up to challenge it. >> Yes. Well, there there there a couple. Montana’s got one. Um, and there are going to be a number of possible wins, but I got to say with the current makeup of the Supreme Court, I just don’t have a lot of faith. And this is the reason why I don’t have a good answer here is because we need to build we need to build power again. And until we do that, and until we send, frankly, a bunch more people like me to the United States state Senate, we’re just not going to have the structural answers. And again, we need to start treating Supreme Court in a way that we bleed it of the power we’ve given it over the years. Um, I am a firm believer that we need some big structural change in the Senate. Like, if we’re not going to remove the two/3s filibuster entirely, we at least need to make it a speaking filibuster. >> Those are structural tweaks. we have to make. But again, the problem here is that we’re only going to be able to make like I don’t get to do that. I don’t get to win and go to DC as the junior senator from Maine and just make all this stuff happen. We need a lot more of me or people like me. In fact, few years there might be another race. Somebody should jump in. Um, but we also have to we have to build that secondary power because quite frankly until we do that, until we have the ability to impose costs on the system and by that I mean for instance there might be other members of the main delegation down the road who don’t want to vote for Medicare for all who don’t want to use the power in the Senate to go after the Supreme Court in the ways that I’ve described here. And we may have to flood their offices with activists. We may we may have to make sure that every time they make public appearances, somebody goes down and yells at them about it. Like they’re because that’s the only power we really have. We need to be able to impose costs on the system and those in it. And until we can do that, and and this is my biggest, and this is frankly why I’m mostly undertaking this project, is that I firmly believe that until we build that kind of power again, all of those fixes are always just going to be a little bit out of reach because those in the system, there will be some who will always make sure that we can’t change it, that we’ll maybe get close, but then somebody’s going to be like, “Well, I mean, I I still think the Senate is a place we’re all best friends, and I don’t want to make any real changes. is and we just can’t have that anymore. But the only way that we get rid of it is by building power and frankly getting those people out. They have time for one more. Um this time I will Oh, actually, yes, ma’am. In the blue. I’m sorry. I just realized I called on one mustache. I can’t call on another one. What’s the last question? It would look like I have favoritism. >> I think you can agree that there’s something happening here and something there’s a lot of power in this room. >> Yes, there is. >> I can feel it. Now, would you consider when you go to future meetings like this, you ask every person in this room if they like what they see that they go out this week and talk to five people about you? And would you consider adding that to every place you go because that will make a difference. >> I I honestly like that very much. It’s uh we didn’t plant her, by the way. I promise we’ve never met before. Uh it is a good segue to my the final part of this. Yes, that would be great if you could go out and talk to five people uh about what you heard here tonight. That would be spectacular. But more importantly, this kind of gets to this gets to what I have to ask of you. And because I’m not just asking you to vote for me and I’m not just asking you to donate money to me, although if you can that would be excellent. What I’m asking you to do is to show up. I’m asking for your time and for your labor, for your energy, and for your discomfort because what comes next is going to be uncomfortable. And whether that means going out and talking to five people and trying to build power in that way, whether that means getting involved in a community organization around you that is already doing this kind of work, whether that means forming your own community group and whether that means joining the Grant Platiner campaign as a volunteer. Quite frankly, I’d be happy if you did just any of them because it is only in building relationships and trust in your community that we’re going to be able to build the power necessary to fight for what we need. And so, yes, if you can talk to four or five people, that’s great. If you can talk to those four or five people and then exchange phone numbers and then talk about how if anybody needs anything over the winter that you show up for each other. Maybe maybe find a mutual aid society around here that is learning how to how to support each other in ways that are not charitable but ways that are merely supporting everyone in our communities because we are the ones that are going to save each other. And I’ll just say that wherever all of this goes, whether we’re having a standard Senate election next November or whether we’re dealing with a more outofc control White House, wherever this goes, the work all starts in the exact same place. And the work all starts in your communities spending time building relationships and building trust. And so when you leave here tonight, when you go over, when you go out for the next week or two, keep that in your minds and just think that if you dedicate an hour, two hours a week to community work, if you have the ability to do so, that is where the power is going to be built. And so I just ask you, that’s what we need to do. So thank you all very much. I really appreciate you having me here tonight.