Browse content similar to Robert Reich - US Secretary of Labor, 1993-1997. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Welcome to HARDtalk it is Stephen Sackur. | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
It is now all but certain that Hillary Clinton will be | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
the Democratic Party candidate in November's US presidential election. | :00:19. | :00:20. | |
After the latest batch of primaries, her lead over Bernie Sanders is | :00:21. | :00:23. | |
But even now the Sanders campaign - radical, | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
anti-establishment and crowdfunded - refuses to admit defeat. | :00:29. | :00:37. | |
HARDtalk talks to Robert Reich, formerly secretary of Labor in | :00:38. | :00:39. | |
Bill Clinton's administration, now a prominent supporter | :00:40. | :00:41. | |
Has the centre of gravity in the Democratic Party shifted? | :00:42. | :01:15. | |
Robert Wright should in Berkely California. Welcome to HARDtalk. | :01:16. | :01:26. | |
Thank you Stephen. Would you acknowledge that the game is now up | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
to your man Bernie Sanders? Will the game is never up and this is a very | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
unusual political season here in the United States. So nobody is out | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
until they really are out and the odds are shrinking of a Bernie | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
Sanders nomination because Hillary Clinton has won a number of | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
delegates and has also, what are called super delegates, Democratic | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
insiders who have told her that they will vote for her at the nomination | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
in July. It'll be extremely difficult but not insurmountable for | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
him to get the nomination. Even he himself has described it as a very | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
narrow path that could conceivably lead into the nomination. Frankly, | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
we all know that that is not going to happen. Would it not be best for | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
all Democrats, and of course you are Democrats, are all Democrats to | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
advise Bernie Sanders to throw in the towel and start the process of | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
unifying and healing after a pretty bitter primary campaign season? | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
Absolutely not, Stephen, I think it is important to Bernie Sanders to | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
stay in the race. Hillary Clinton stayed in the contests in 2008 and | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
it was also somewhat a bitter contest in the Democratic primary | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
but her staying in May Barack Obama a better candidate and kept a lot of | :02:52. | :02:58. | |
followers in and they ultimately voted for Barack Obama. You see that | :02:59. | :03:05. | |
the Bernie Sanders phenomenon is not just a candidacy, it is also a | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
movement to reclaim American democracy from what I called the | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
money interests, the big banks and financial institutions, the big | :03:16. | :03:18. | |
corporations are the billionaires who have overrun American politics. | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
It is also a movement that has attracted unprecedented number of | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
young people who would be very disappointed and feel let down it | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
Ernie Sanders was just to leave. I think that movement is going to | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
continue right through the convention and beyond. Well I want | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
to talk about the meaning of the movement in some detail. Before we | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
get their let us stick with Bernie Sanders and a choice he estimates | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
right now about how he conducts himself over the next few months | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
leading up to the Philadelphia Convention in July. He says he's not | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
the guy for politics as usual and he is a different kind of politician, | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
and yet, what he is doing now and I will use his brutal word, trashing | :04:03. | :04:09. | |
Hillary Clinton's record it is politics as usual. In the last month | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
he is saying that she is I'm qualified to be president. You are | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
one of his supporters, do you think that is ill-advised? It is | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
ill-advised and identity he said say that she is unqualified. In context | :04:24. | :04:30. | |
he said if she continues to take large money, it issues in the | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
pockets of Wall Street, which I don't think she is... In respect she | :04:34. | :04:41. | |
has taken large amounts of corporate money and there was a dinner that | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
was $350,000 a plate for the privilege of sitting with George | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
Clooney. I would not pay that money for the privilege, I would not pay | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
for it $10 for the privilege of sitting with them. My point... That | :04:56. | :05:01. | |
is the sort of politics that Hillary Clinton is playing an Bernie Sanders | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
appears determined to continue this corrosion is assault on Mrs | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
Clinton's connections to Wall Street and the corporate interests at a | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
time when I'm telling you, maybe, it would be better for the party if he | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
backed off. I think there is a distinction here, Stephen that is | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
very important, I think the Bernie Sanders continues to rail against | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
big corporate money and big billionaire money and money that is | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
coming from Wall Street and it is not and should not be interpreted, | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
and I don't believe and item that is wise that he should say anything | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
that could be interpreted as an attack on Hillary Clinton | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
personally. It is an attack on a system that is out of control and I | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
thing is a perfectly legitimate attack and I do think that one of | :05:48. | :05:50. | |
the reasons it is important to him to continue in the primaries is | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
because this line of attack, this line of argument is so important to | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
be heard in the United States. You have in your analysis of this | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
political season described this as very much in antiestablishment | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
political temperature right now. Would you accept that one of Hillary | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
Clinton's is problems is that you cannot imagine a woman with a more | :06:15. | :06:23. | |
establishment record then she? You are right in the sense that she has | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
taken a lot of money from Wall Street and from big corporations and | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
her husband, when Bill Clinton was president and by the way, I was in | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
that administration and very proud and we are, should a great deal. But | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
the point if I may the those who don't remember, it is worth pointing | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
out that you sat in the Clinton administration as a voice on the | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
progressive left and joined many fights with other members of the | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
team because while they were talking about pragmatism, moderation is the | :06:53. | :06:58. | |
third way, you said that we are liberals. It seems to me that you | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
and the Clintons have always been at odds to a certain extent on that | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
point. While not on the meaning of the word liberal and I think that | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
Bill Clinton and I think e-commerce and very important things, and I | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
like to think that I helped him, which some of those things, but | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
there was tension in that demonstration and it was healthy | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
tension between those who were most concerned about getting the budget | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
deficit down and shrinking the size of the government, and those of us, | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
you might call us on the progressive left who wanted to do more to a more | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
ambitious in terms of helping the problems of the poor, reducing | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
inequality and so forth. G continues to exist in the Democratic party. I | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
stay healthy tension because people don't come to blows as they do in | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
the Republican Party. The Republican Party these days is a bunch of | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
warring factions. The Democratic party, a large dent, many of my | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
close friends are people who very strongly disagree with me when I was | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
in the Bill Clinton administration and they are now supporting Hillary | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
Clinton. Are they a stab at? Well, to some extent absolutely and I | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
think this is is in antiestablishment surge, both in the | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
Democratic campaign but also in a Republican campaign. I promise you | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
that we will get to the content of the meaning of antiestablishment and | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
progressive words like that when it comes to politics in just a moment. | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
But one last question about the Hillary Clinton factor on a more | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
personal level. I mean she's been questioned on her judgement by | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
Bernie Sanders, he points to support the Iraq war, he points to what he | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
does not but many of his supporters point to her use of personal e-mail | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
in official business, which clearly was a mistake and she apologised | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
for. There is a judgement factor which Bernie Sanders has introduced | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
which interestingly Donald Trump is now hammering home as well. Here is | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
the question. The more Sanders keeps this up the more he is helping the | :09:12. | :09:13. | |
Republicans, and in particular Donald Trump. And I don't think that | :09:14. | :09:22. | |
is true Stephen. Certainly if Bernie Sanders tries to go after all | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
assassinated Hillary Clinton's character and, personally, that | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
would be damaging and that does help the Republican challenger, whether | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
it is Trump or anyone else. As long as Bernie Sanders keeps his | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
criticism to the side that I was suggesting a moment ago. That is to | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
the general problem and the large problem of big money in politics and | :09:47. | :09:54. | |
the domination of the interests of big corporations, Wall Street and | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
billionaires over the interests of average working people. And that is | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
a valid criticism and I hope that Hillary Clinton here's the criticism | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
for what it is. And continues to move in the direction the Bernie | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
Sanders is and has been urging. As she has during this entire primary | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
season. Interesting point and a lot of people say that because of the | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
pressure coming from Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton has | :10:23. | :10:25. | |
modified her position and she has tackled leftward in a way that | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
leaves many people confused about what she believes. Here is a simple | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
question. Is Hillary Clinton, in your view, a progressive or not? | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
Will let us get back to what you want to delay in this programme is | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
the definition of what all these words mean. I've known her censure | :10:45. | :10:51. | |
was 19 years old. She deeply cares about the plight of the underdogs, | :10:52. | :10:58. | |
the people who are poor and working-class, lower middle-class | :10:59. | :11:01. | |
America and she has been fighting for better educational opportunities | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
and entire life the people who don't and many good educational | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
opportunities. And I'm no question about her values? But even as you | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
listed, sorry to interrupt, even as he listed those think she cares that | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
you have left me confused. On education, Bernie Sanders is the guy | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
calling for Free State college education for all, Hillary Clinton | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
says that is ridiculous and won't work. Bernie Sanders is the guy | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
saying his call for a $15 minimum wage and Hillary Clinton says that | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
just won't work. Bernie Sanders says report for those trade deals that | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
are bad for American workers, and Hillary Clinton in her pastor | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
supported them and says that the transpacific partnership that Bernie | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
Sanders hate so much was a golden opportunity. That was one phrase | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
that she used. Try to expect me that how she could be a progressive and | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
all those positions I have outlined? She has moved on all those positions | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
and she's very much in favour of a $15 minimum wage. The fight for 15 | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
she has endorsed. The transpacific partnership she has backed down and | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
said that is not such a good idea and it needs to be re-examined and | :12:12. | :12:14. | |
rethought. On many other positions... Why would we believe | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
her if she packs around the political winds, why would we take | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
seriously as anything other than the old style ragwort is? Well | :12:24. | :12:29. | |
pragmatism is not a bad thing in a president. And I think here we get | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
into this means and ends continue. I've been around politicians for | :12:35. | :12:43. | |
about 40 years. I do see politicians and the best of them struggling with | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
means and ends. They want to hold fast to their principles but at the | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
same time they do want to be pragmatic. Bernie Sanders has pushed | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
Hillary very hard toward the ideals that Bernie Sanders feels are very | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
important. I happen to share Bernie Sanders's ideals and that is why in | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
this election. And he is forcing Hillary Clinton to make a slightly | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
different weighing perhaps of her pragmatism against these ideals, if | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
she and when she gets the nomination, will she then moved back | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
towards the pragmatic, let us put quote round centre, because we're | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
not define these terms yet. Maybe that is what most presidents and | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
presidential campaigns do when they are in the general election in the | :13:35. | :13:37. | |
United States. But that does not mean that those ideals are | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
meaningless and that she is unprincipled simply because she is | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
pragmatic at the same time. Will you indoors her wholeheartedly and | :13:45. | :13:47. | |
unreservedly when it seems inevitable that she finally gets | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
over the top and has his nomination completely sewn up? | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
I certainly will, I don't think it's inevitable but I will work my heart | :13:55. | :14:01. | |
out to make sure she's president. The Democratic party and her | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
candidacy, if she becomes candidate, present to the American | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
public a far better set of alternatives than what the | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
Republicans are presenting. I think the Republicans really are quite out | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
of their minds. Let's just talk about the legacy that Bernie Sanders | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
will leave behind, assuming that Hillary Clinton takes the | :14:23. | :14:25. | |
nomination. He has caused a buzz, he's got a lot of young people | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
involved in politics for the first time but if you look at his failure | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
to reach out to minorities, look at his failure to appeal to mainstream | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
small seed conservative Americans who actually repeatedly say they | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
want smaller government and lower taxes. What is Bernie's long-term | :14:43. | :14:51. | |
legacy? Bernie Sanders has put squarely on the public agenda the | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
Nexus, the connection between great wealth, concentration of income and | :14:58. | :15:00. | |
wealth and the concentration of political power in the US in the | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
hands of relatively few people, mostly billionaires and corporate | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
executives and Wall Street executives. I've been in and out of | :15:10. | :15:15. | |
politics for 40 years. There has been a huge difference. I've seen in | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
equality become almost record levels in the United States, and with that | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
inequality has come the dominance of a moneyed elite over American | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
politics. Bernie Sanders has eloquently brought to the public's | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
attention what that has meant for American democracy and also for our | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
economy. That's interesting but the bottom line is he ain't going to | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
win, so it just leaves his supporters deeply frustrated and | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
with a feeling that the system remains loaded against them. But as | :15:47. | :15:53. | |
you undoubtedly know, any movement to change a political system, to | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
change the allocation of power, takes years and years. Bernie | :15:57. | :16:02. | |
Sanders is and will be one of the movement's leaders. There are other | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
leaders, Elizabeth Warren, other progressives who are sounding the | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
same alarm, people need to be mobilised and organised. This is the | :16:13. | :16:15. | |
beginning of what may be four years or eight years or 12 to begin to | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
reverse the concentration of income and wealth and political power in | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
the United States. Or there's an alternative, and you posited it | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
yourself not so long ago in response to a media question, and that is the | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
album the establishment feeling we've talked about in this | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
interview, the raw anger with many Americans that their lot doesn't | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
seem to be improving, that feeling is actually channelled into Donald | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
Trump's campaign, that he is the other antiestablishment guy in this | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
election season, alongside Bernie Sanders, and bizarrely, although | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
he's certainly not coming from the left, Donald Trump made hoover up | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
some of Sanders's discontented supporters. That's certainly | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
possible and we see not only in the United States but also around Europe | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
that discontent, anxiety, in terms of jobs, wages, more economic | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
insecurity, has led to a welling up of antiestablishment and also | :17:16. | :17:21. | |
xenophobic and also unfortunately quite bigoted politics. That's what | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
we have on the right in the US, that's what Donald Trump | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
represents. In other words antiestablishment feeling can take | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
either a positive direction in terms of a fundamental political reform of | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
a democratic nature, and that's Bernie Sanders, or a kind of | :17:39. | :17:41. | |
authoritarian populism, which we see in Donald Trump. I think that is the | :17:42. | :17:48. | |
choice in America in the future. It's the choice for many countries | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
in the future. The bottom line in that response is there is a populist | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
appeal to trump as there is to Sanders, which Hillary Clinton | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
doesn't have. I think Hillary Clinton, if she faces Donald Trump | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
in the general election in the United States, will win. My concern | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
and my fear is that that doesn't in of itself deal with this upsurge of | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
populism, both authoritarian populism on the one side, the trump | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
side, and also the more democratic, progressive populism on the left. | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
She will need as a candidate and also I think certainly as a | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
president, were she elected, she will need, and the Democratic Party | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
will also need, and for that matter the Republican Party, will need to | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
acknowledge this upsurge and begin to address the underlying problems | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
of widening inequality, a shrinking middle-class, and economic | :18:49. | :18:51. | |
insecurity. Yeah, let's pick up on that point then. We've so far talked | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
about the political season and the standing of the candidates and the | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
parties. Let's leave aside party politics for a minute and think | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
about the state of America today. Not so long ago you wrote a book | :19:05. | :19:11. | |
called Saving Capitalism. Do you believe the political system in the | :19:12. | :19:14. | |
United States today and a range of choices offered is going to come | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
anywhere close over the next four years of saving capitalism, of | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
restoring America to health? Well, my book and my philosophy as it | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
worth is that the only way that you can have a buoyant and healthy | :19:33. | :19:36. | |
capitalism is if you have a growing and buoyant middle-class, the poor | :19:37. | :19:42. | |
can ascend into and also can provide enough aggregate demand to keep an | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
economy going. That's not the direction we're going in now. | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
Politically to get there you've got to have changes in the rules of the | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
game that make it possible for a buoyant and growing middle class to | :19:56. | :20:06. | |
thrive. Right now our politics in the United States is totally | :20:07. | :20:07. | |
dysfunctional, it's polarised, it's angry. If Hillary Clinton were to | :20:08. | :20:10. | |
become president tomorrow there is little she would be able to do | :20:11. | :20:13. | |
legislatively to help the middle class to turn both politically and | :20:14. | :20:16. | |
economically the country around. If I may say so, we've talked party | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
politics, if I look at your writings and your thoughts, you're not really | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
confident that anybody can deliver the sort of structural, fundamental | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
structural change America needs. To quote you," This extraordinary | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
concentration of income, wealth and political power in the US at the | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
very top imperils all else, our economy, democracy, revival of the | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
middle-class, the prospects for poor people, people of colour, climate | :20:47. | :20:52. | |
change, even a sensible policy". You seem to be saying that the | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
inequality in the United States today, the growing gap between the | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
superrich and everybody else, is corroding the entire system. And | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
corrupting the entire system politically, that's right, Stephen. | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
You might want to ask, where do I get my optimism from? I'm a very | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
optimistic fellow. I think the optimism will be corrected because I | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
look at American history, I look at the 1830s, I looked at the | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
progressive period between 1901 and 1916, the 1930s, the New Deal, and | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
to a certain extent the 1960s, and what you see in the United States is | :21:32. | :21:37. | |
almost a remarkable resilience, a corrective mechanism where people | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
put ideology aside, roll up their sleeves and get on with what has to | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
be done to save capitalism from its own Nexis. You seem to hang up these | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
days on inequality, and using legislation and regulation and | :21:53. | :21:55. | |
busting the big banks and the healthcare providers to, in your | :21:56. | :21:58. | |
view, deliver a new form of equality. But equality isn't really | :21:59. | :22:06. | |
an American ideal. The American dream isn't about ensuring that you | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
have just the same as your neighbours, it's about ensuring that | :22:11. | :22:13. | |
you have the possibility of rising up and your kids can rise up even | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
further. Why are you now so hung up on inequality? Stephen, I'm not hung | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
up on inequality, I'm hung up on the problem of concentrated income | :22:26. | :22:28. | |
wealth and political power in the United States. We've not seen this | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
degree of inequality since the 1890s and the so called Gilded Age where | :22:35. | :22:37. | |
you have a recording with and absolutely connected with that | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
concentration of income and wealth at the top. The American dream has | :22:43. | :22:50. | |
always delivered inequality. It's really what America's about. Wait a | :22:51. | :22:55. | |
minute, Stephen, that's absolutely wrong, America's about upward | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
mobility. You can't get upward mobility if you have too much | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
inequality. Huizing that repeatedly, economic studies confirm that. If | :23:07. | :23:08. | |
you lose your middle-class there's no place for the poor to ascend | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
into. If you lose your middle-class, and we are currently having a | :23:14. | :23:17. | |
shrinking middle-class, and the median wage and median household | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
incomes are dropping adjusted for inflation, if that occurs it's much | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
harder for anybody to move upward. That's what this whole battle is | :23:26. | :23:28. | |
about, that's what Byrne and the Bernd Boente phenomenon is about. | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
What's fuelling Donald Trump is about the fears and insecurities of | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
a middle-class that's shrinking. Are you sure you're still optimistic? | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
Yes I am, I am optimistic. I am optimistic because again, look at | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
the young people. When I'm not in politics I teach, I surround myself | :23:50. | :23:57. | |
with young people, 18-26, they are extraordinarily optimistic, they are | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
the inheritors of this system, they're the ones that are going to | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
make the changes required. Robert Wright, we will end with a positive | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
thought, thank you very much indeed for being on HARDtalk. Thank you | :24:10. | :24:11. | |
very much. -- Robert Reich. It's fair to say most of us are | :24:12. | :24:38. | |
happy to see the back of April after | :24:39. | :24:43. |