CHARLES SIMIC ON BERNIE SANDERS’ SPEECH “Here's Bernie Sanders's opening speech: “I think most Americans understand that our country today faces a series of unprecedented crises. The middle class of this country for the last forty years has been disappearing. Millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, and yet almost all of the new income and wealth being created is going to the top one percent. “As a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, our campaign finance system is corrupt and is undermining American democracy. Millionaires and billionaires are pouring unbelievable sums of money into the political process in order to fund Super PACs and to elect candidates who represent their interests, not the interests of working people.” ……………………….. “What this campaign is about is whether we can mobilize our people to take back our government from a handful of billionaires and create the vibrant democracy we know we can and should have.” Charles Simic, former Poet Laureate of the United States, commenting on the Democratic Presidential Candidates’ debate on October 13, 2015 in the New York Review, pp 66 and 67, November 19, 2015, in an essay titled, “Bernie & Hillary & the Future.”