Bernie Sanders: ‘As a US senator, I confront corporate greed every single day’

1. What is your earliest memory?
   Watching a parade celebrating the end of the second world war.

2. Who was or still is your mentor?
   On a personal level, my brother Larry. We grew up in a house with not a lot of books. My father dropped out of school in Poland at a very young age; my mom graduated high school. My brother began bringing books into the house and talking to me about ideas he was working with in high school and college. He exposed me to ideas which greatly influenced my life. On a political level, two of the major influences on my thinking are Eugene Victor Debs, one of the founders of the American socialist party, and Martin Luther King Jr, who I consider one of the great leaders of modern American history.

3. How fit are you?
   Walking is my major form of exercise. I will not tell you that my diet is as good as it should be, but it’s better than it used to be.

4. Tell me about an animal you have loved.
   I love animals, but they have not played a major role in my life.

5. Risk or caution, which has defined your life more?
   Taking on much of the political and economic establishment in the United States entails a bit of risk.

6. What trait do you find most irritating in others?
   I like serious discussion. I like to be dealing with real ideas, real issues. Small talk is something I become a little impatient with.

7. What trait do you find most irritating in yourself?
   I am probably a little too impatient, and not quite as tolerant as I might be in hearing other people out.

8. What drives you on?
   Anger about the current situation in America. As a US senator I confront corporate greed every single day, I confront injustice, I confront massive levels of income and wealth inequality. I see tens of thousands of people dying unnecessarily because of our dysfunctional healthcare system. I see kids not getting the education they need, or can afford. And I see a planet in danger of massive, massive crises because of climate change, because of the greed of the fossil-fuel industry. I see corporate power exercised in a way that is incredibly destructive to the people of the United States and, in fact, much of the world.

9. Do you believe in an afterlife?
   You’ll excuse me, but that’s kind of personal.

10. Which is more puzzling, the existence of suffering or its frequent absence?
    In my country right now, and all over the world, there is an enormous amount of pain and desperation. In America today, people die because they don’t get to a doctor when they should, many people can’t afford prescription drugs, many people live in inadequate housing. I see a great deal of suffering in the United States, which is something we intend, if we work hard, to try to confront.

11. Name your favourite river.
    The Winooski in Vermont.

12. What would you have done differently?
    I think we made certain political mistakes in our presidential campaign. If we’d figured things out a little bit better, the result would have been different. I’m proud of the campaigns we ran, I’m proud of the work that we have done, but in retrospect, when one looks back, one understands one could always have been that little bit better.

“It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism” by Bernie Sanders is published by Allen Lane

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