Political Quotes

“I hear more and more from people in my own State of Vermont and from people, in fact, all over the country via email, through my Web site, who are wondering whether this great country is evolving into an oligarchic society. Historically, as I think most people know, the United States was the envy of the world for so many reasons. But one of the reasons, economically, is that in our country there was always the belief that regardless of your income you have the opportunity to move up the economic ladder. There was the reality--not just the belief--that we had a great and expanding middle class; that if your dad and your mom didn't go to college--which, in fact, was the case in my family--you would have that opportunity to go to college and move up the educational ladder or the business ladder or professional field. There was the feeling that economically what America was about, and what we celebrated, was the great middle class. People today, both from an economic perspective and from a political perspective, are beginning in a very serious way to question that reality. What they are looking at is that today in our country we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on Earth. I think a lot of young people say, well, how could that be? In England you have the Queen of England, all the lords, all the royalty all over Europe, and we don't have that in the United States.…”