Ken Burns: When You Have Dick Cheney and Bernie Sanders Voting for the Same Person, You Know There Is Something Threatening the Republic

EXCERPT:

BURNS: "I don't know how we got to this point where it has to be pointed out to almost half the population that the emperor has no clothes. This is unprecedented. We don’t have a presidential candidate of this character or perhaps lack of character in our entire history. You’d have to go to people like Aaron Burr. I made a film in 1985 on the turbulent southern demagogue Huey Long. At least Huey Long delivered infrastructure. He made bridges, he made roads, he bought schoolbooks, he started hospitals. You have somebody who's interested only in himself. There’s a difference between populism and its many manifestations in American history and me-ism, which is, of course, just an egocentrism that will grasp at any straw and do anything and say anything to get elected. So, we do have a cast of characters. This is human nature. We are going to have people like this. Perfidy is not a stranger to us. The greed and generosity come in the same kinds of quantities. But at this level, it’s completely unprecedented, which is why you’re seeing so many people, like my friend Ken Adleman, who’s written just eloquently about why he’s supporting Kamala Harris, you have Dick Cheney and Bernie Sanders voting for the same person. You know there is something threatening the republic that transcends the party, and now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country and not their party."