Right now we have a bipartisan debate commission, when most Americans are not members of the bipartisan establishment.

I don't trust their [Bill and Hillary Clinton ] sense of boundaries.

In other words, "speaking truth" as a social movement may move you forward in some ways, but to really lock in and have real enduring change, it takes both a movement on the ground and an independent political party that is itself the defiance of that two-party corporate big-money control of politics.

I've heard from lots of organizers in the [Bernie] Sanders campaign, both paid and unpaid. I have heard from lots of them. We have not heard from the Sanders campaign. I do not expect to hear from the Sanders campaign. But you know, it's not over until it's over. So we remain open to that possibility. As Bernie said himself, it's not about a man, it's a movement.

That's in part what the Green New Deal is designed to do. So it's not only to address the climate emergency, but also to address the economic emergency, because the recovery has really gone to the top.

Why should the Democratic and Republican parties be in charge of the debates, especially at a time when the largest block of voters has repudiated the Democratic and Republican parties? Why are they still in charge?

I was recruited to sort of be the doc to advocate for communities that were struggling with polluting incinerators, polluting coal plants, toxic waste sites, etc.