Reelection ought not to be the primary preoccupation of any politician. It ought to be standing up for truth and justice.

The question is really how do we think seriously about this mechanism called a market. It ought to be determining not values but prices.

We're learning lessons from Africa. And the lesson that we need to learn is, how do we straighten our backs up in the face of these oligarchs and plutocrats who are trying to snatch the best of our democracy away?

There's simply no philosophizing without a love of wisdom, absolutely.

The problem is that affirmative action could never really get at the issue of corporate power in the workplace, and so you ended up with the downsizing; you ended up with de-industrializing. You ended up with the marginalizing of working people and working poor people even while affirmative action was taking place, and a new black middle class was expanding.

The most important assets we have are our bodies and our energy which can be put to good use as resources in political activism for poor and working people.

We need to put strong Democratic pressure on President Obama in the name of poor and working people.