Blocked from Debate, Socialist Candidate Claudia De la Cruz Blasts ‘Spectacle’ of Democracy
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2024
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s first, and likely last, debate was held last night. America’s tortured form of “democracy” was on display for the whole world to see.
Brian Becker is joined by Claudia De La Cruz, a presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism & Liberation, a lifelong community organizer and popular educator.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off in a debate on Tuesday for the first and probably the last time. |
| 0:09.5 | If this was a demonstration of American democracy, a greater part of the world must be scratching its head. |
| 0:17.7 | Welcome to the socialist program. I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 0:21.8 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have |
| 0:27.6 | sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Today, today. Today we're talking with Claudia de la Cruz. |
| 0:57.7 | She is a presidential candidate for the party for socialism and liberation. |
| 1:02.1 | She is a lifelong community organizer, popular educator, and theologian. |
| 1:07.6 | Claudia, welcome back to the show. |
| 1:09.5 | Thank you so much for having me. |
| 1:11.4 | Well, I have to say, I was looking for you in the debate, Claudia, and you and the other |
| 1:17.4 | progressive candidates, you weren't there. |
| 1:20.2 | You've been excluded from the debates. |
| 1:22.7 | The Democrats and the Republicans have excluded your voice. |
| 1:25.8 | I have to say, having listened to you many, many times, |
| 1:29.5 | that if either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump |
| 1:32.8 | or before Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, had debated you, |
| 1:37.0 | people all around the country and all around the world would have thought, |
| 1:40.4 | yeah, I agree with what she's saying. |
| 1:43.0 | But it's precisely for that reason that socialist |
| 1:46.3 | candidates are actually excluded, historically excluded. And it's not just socialists, any |
| 1:53.0 | progressive candidate, even when Ralph Nader was running for the Green Party and filling Madison |
| 1:57.6 | Square Garden in a couple days' notice in 2000, the Democrats made, and the Republicans |
... |
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