I am convinced that if we can muster the courage to work together, we can do what needs to be done. Building a progressive future requires building a… - Bernie Sanders

The Republican Party is working overtime to suppress the vote and undermine American democracy. It is a party which ignores climate change, the existential threat to our planet and represents the interests of the wealthy and the powerful while turning its back on struggling working-class families. The GOP is the party that gives tax breaks to billionaires while pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs desperately needed by ordinary Americans. And yet, despite the outrageous behavior of leading Republicans and their reactionary and unpopular agenda, recent polling suggests that Republicans stand a strong chance to gain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate and pick up additional seats in state legislatures throughout the country. Why is this happening? Why, despite the horrendous Republican record, are Democrats losing support among Latinos, young people and African Americans? How does it happen that a party that is supposed to stand for working families was rejected by over 75% of White voters without college degrees in the most recent gubernatorial race in Virginia? Democrats cannot ignore these realities and continue traveling down a failed road which will only lead to disaster.

The United States has been at war for too long. Even today, we seem to be preparing for a new war with Iran, which would be the worst yet. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump ordered thousands of additional U.S. troops to the Middle East to confront Tehran and its proxies. And we recently learned that the Pentagon had presented the White House with plans to send tens of thousands more. I am very concerned that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Trump administration’s moves against Iran, and Iran’s moves in response, could put us in direct conflict. We should all understand that a war with Iran would be many times worse than the Iraq war. U.S. military leaders and security experts have repeatedly told us that. If the United States were to attack Iran, Tehran could use its proxies to retaliate against U.S. troops and partners in Iraq, Syria, Israel, and the Persian Gulf area. The result would be the further, unimaginable destabilization of the Middle East, with wars that go on year after year and likely cost trillions of dollars.

When we began our race for the presidency in April 2015, we were considered by the political establishment and the media to be a "fringe" campaign, something not to be taken seriously. After all, I was a senator from a small state with very little name recognition. Our campaign had no money, no political organization, and we were taking on the entire Democratic Party establishment. And, by the way, we were also running against the most powerful political operation in the country. The Clinton machine had won the presidency for Bill Clinton twice and almost won the Democratic presidential nomination for Hillary Clinton in 2008. When our campaign finally came to a close in July 2016, it turned out that the pundits had got it wrong-big-time. We had made history and run one of the most consequential campaigns in the modern history of the country-a campaign that would, in a very profound way, change America.