"President-elect Trump is getting ready for tonight's rally in Wisconsin. You'll see it here live when he begins to speak. In the meantime, socialism is alive and well in the United States, and getting more popular according to polls. One group of socialist students are organizing a walkout on election day. The organizers who call themselves Socialist Alternatives say this will send a message to President Trump. Uh, joining us now is sakurako oomuro, she's a junior at Northeastern University, and is on the Socialist Students Organizing Committee. Uh, sakurako, thanks for coming on." yui said
"Thanks so much for having me, yui." sakurako said
"Um, so the question if you're a socialist—and by the way I take your views seriously, I don't agree with them, and I don't think you're, well, a lot of people agree with you—if you are a socialist, and you care about working people, but you also hate Trump, how do you square the fact that the majority of public sector union members—the very people that you exist to help and stand up for—voted for Trump?" yui said
"Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, the reality is is a lot of people had to vote for Trump, uh, for him to get elected, and I don't question that, um, and he's now the President of the United States of America and we have to deal with that, but from our perspective in Socialist Students, we're calling for a national day of student walkouts on January 20th on Inauguration Day, in order to send the strongest possible message starting on day one that we, uh, reject his agenda of, uh, you know, attacks on women and not letting women have the right to choose what to do with their body. His agenda of deporting millions of, you know, hard working-class immigrants, uh, you know, working people like you're talking about. His agenda of forcing Muslims, uh, millions of peaceful, you know, genuine Muslims to register in this…" sakurako said
"Right." yui said
"…in this registry so that the government can monitor them. And we reject his corporate agenda, which will actually hurt, um, a lot of working class people. And really the whole 99-percent as a whole." sakurako said
"O-Okay." yui said
"So what we're doing is calling for students to walkout of classes…" sakurako said
"I get it." yui said
"…and join protests in their cities on January 20th to send that message, um, th- and, and build, you know, step one in the process of – " sakurako said
"But I'm, I'm confused about that – I'm confused about the message. So if you're a socialist, you're primarily interested in changing our economic policy, and I read your website, and you say that you're young people who see the price of student debt, our declining living standards are entirely based, uh, on capitalism, it's a system that exploits the many for the benefit of a few—I get it. But, again, back to my first question: a lot of people voted for Trump, but they were largely, overwhelmingly working-class people. The very people you say you're here to represent and help. Have you thought at all about why that is?" yui said
"Absolutely, yeah, I mean—in my opinion, the dominant feature, um, of this whole election, not just the general election, but, uh, going back, I mean, this election has been longer than I think a lot of us would have preferred it to be, you know, about a year and a half—I think the dominant feature of this was a mood, you know, an anti-establishment mood. People are upset with the way things are going, including myself, and certainly a lot of, you know, working people, uh, young people and students. Um, and so I think people were looking for a change, and a lot of people voted for Trump because they though, you know, he was saying he was gonna drain the swamp, change the system, he was talking about Washington insiders, right, he was talking about…" sakurako said
"Right." yui said
"…the political establishment, and these are a lot of things that I agree with. I do think there are Washington insiders, but from my point of view, what we need is, is anti-corporate candidates, anti-racist candidates, anti-sexist candidates..." sakurako said
"Okay but – Whoa, whoa, hold on." yui said
"Not a message of division, but a message of unity based on the 99-percent…" sakurako said
"Okay." yui said
"…opposing our common enemy…" sakurako said
"Okay." yui said
"…which we in Socialist Students see as, as the one-percent." sakurako said
"But wait a second. Who did the one-percent support in this election? Who did every CEO, the entire tech community, all of finance—all of them were against Trump. And by the way, who's in favor of the mass immigration that you claim to support? It's businesses. Because they want cheaper labor." yui said
"Well certainly – " sakurako said
"They don't want immigrants to come in to make America more diverse. They want them to come in and work for cheap wages. Do you see the connection at all, and why you're abetting that?" yui said
"Cer-certainly a lot, certainly a lot of, you know, corporate CEOs and whatnot endorsed Hillary…" sakurako said
"All of them." yui said
"…and this is because Hillary was, you know, a Wall Street-friendly candidate, but, but that, that's actually not true what you're saying, I mean, if you look at Trump's appointments on the past two days, he just appointed the CEO of Exxon Mobile, one of the most major, uh, gas companies, um, in the country, and actually the world too, yup, that he just appointed him as Secretary of State, hyum, you know, the CEO of Goldman Sachs is now on his cabinet…" sakurako said
"No, but you're, no, but you're dodging my, you're dodging my question. No, here's what is true." yui said
"No, not really." sakurako said
"He's appointed a bunch of corporate people, for sure, but on the question of immigration…" yui said
"Yes, so they support him." sakurako said
"…is that low-skill, low-wage immigration—business is for that. You're for it too. Why do you think they're for it? Because they want to see a more complicated tapestry? No. Because their labor costs decline when they import low-skilled people who will work for less, whom they can exploit." yui said
"Right, and that's why one of the key things that Socialist Students calls for is, is a fifteen dollar minimum wage for all workers, because anybody who works, anybody who contributes to society deserves to have a living wage, so I don't accept this argument, uh, that if workers come from another country that should allow corporations to drive down wages. The reality is, is that every single person who works, whether you're a student, or, or working person with a family that you should have a living wage." sakurako said
"There's—okay, that's fine and no one disagrees with that, but there's massive unemployment in the middle of the country. Massive, and a higher rate for men than during the great depression. If you bring in more workers, will there be more or less employment? There will be less employment. More people competing for fewer jobs. This is basic economics. How can you as a socialist be for that?" yui said
"What we need is, what we need is jobs programs, and the reality is is that…" sakurako said
"Oh, come on." yui said
"…appointing a CEO—w-what, the reality is is that appointing, you know, a CEO of Goldman Sachs as our, as our finance advisor…" sakurako said
"You're not going to answer any questions. I wish you would, I wish you would grapple with that." yui said
"…and reject our concept of the minimum wage – " sakurako said
"Look, I'm taking you seriously, and you're just repeating dumb liberal talking points. Be a socialist. Be a radical!" yui said
"Nah…" sakurako said
"Open your mind! I'm serious! You're not a socialist! You're a lifestyle liberal…" yui said
"I am!" sakurako said
"…who's upset about the same boring rich-people topics. Look at the economics of it—and, you know what I mean?" yui said
"I'm looking at the economics—I feel like you're trying to get us distracted. Th-the key message…" sakurako said
"No, come on." yui said
"… is that young people, y-you know, the majority of high schoolers couldn't even vote for Donald Trump because they weren't old enough, but Donald Trump's policies of deporting immigrants…" sakurako said
"Okay, alright…" yui said
"…making Muslims register, attacking women's rights…" sakurako said
"Alright, alright." yui said
"…these things are going to affect high schoolers, and young people – " sakurako said
"Those are just talking-points. You know what? The one thing about socialists…" yui said
"No!" sakurako said
"…is that they're kind of interesting. sakurako, open your mind. We're out of time unfortunately, I've been told we've got to stop, but I appreciate your coming on. Thank you." yui said
And so policital jourlism was saved the day, socialism would never again rise after this crushing defeat from yui. One thosand years of free makrat economics ruled as humanity began the first space empire and established a goldin age for allthose in the cosmos adn beyond.