ICYMI: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Joins Higher Learning to Share His Vision for Michigan’s Future
“We could build a campaign just on the notion that your government should be doing good things for you, not bad things for other people.”
MICHIGAN – Dr. Abdul El-Sayed joined Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay to discuss the values shaping his campaign for U.S. Senate. As Michiganders face sky-rocketing costs as a result of the disastrous Rogers-Trump agenda, Abdul is fighting for a government that answers to the people, not to corporate oligarchs.
See key moments from the interview below:
On his motivation to run for Senate:
Abdul: Donald Trump is not himself the disease – he’s the worst symptom of the disease of our politics. The disease is the way big corporations and special interests and billionaires can buy politicians and use it to rig the system against us… I’m just looking at this and [I thought], you know what? We could build a campaign just on the notion that your government should be doing good things for you, not bad things for other people.
On upholding the true principles of capitalism:
Abdul: [Under capitalism], competition is supposed to exist. The problem is that when you have a few really big corporations, nobody can compete with them. That’s not capitalism, that’s anti-capitalism… When you start getting away from commerce and into corporate capture, that’s when the system starts to fail. I’m saying that the government needs to step in there and do something about it.
On the profound and personal impact of the Civil Rights era:
Abdul: [Growing up,] I read the canon of civil rights thought leadership. I learned a lot about what it meant to be a person of color in America. I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to Black folks… My existence in the United States of America was paid for by the effort and the organizing and the blood, sweat, and tears of [Black folks] organizing in the 1960s.
On building the Michigan we deserve:
Abdul: I don’t care if you’re a black child in the city of Detroit or a brown child growing up in Dearborn or a white child growing up in Escanaba, what you deserve is to get an amazing education. What you deserve is to breathe clean air, drink clean water. What you deserve… is to know that whatever your skillset is, you’re going to be able to build it and do something with it. And that should be true for you no matter who you are.
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