Interview with 2018 NJ-7 Our Revolution candidate, Peter Jacob

Link to SoundCloud

Interview conducted on May 1st, 2018, by Jeff Epstein

I met Peter Jacob at the 2016 Democratic National Convention where we were both New Jersey state delegates for Bernie Sanders. At the time, Peter was also a first time candidate for New Jersey’s seventh Congressional district. That November, he earned 43% of the vote against a three time Republican incumbent, Leonard Lance. Peter is now in his second campaign against Lance.

Our interview was recorded on May first, just over one month before primary day (original live stream). As with most truly progressive candidates around the country, the Democratic party at every level has gone out of its way to make things as difficult as possible. This article by Citizens’ Media TV contains a brief mention of Peter near the end.

Other topics of discussion:

• Peter noticed my comprehensive coverage of the 2016 Democratic National Convention as it was happening.
• Peter talks about how he and his father realized that the Iraq war was invaded on false pretenses. I was not “awake“ until Bernie Sanders. I asked Peter how, with the absence of the internet and new media, did he discover the truth? Peter Concluded this portion of the story by talking about how his father brought home a pamphlet That describes the nets being told to the American people by the government. Peter said that he read this pamphlet to his high school class. Peter remembered how, at the end of the year, a fellow students told him how smart he was, despite Peter’s mediocre GPA. The students told him how impactful it was to hear the information on that pamphlet.
• Talks about his primary sources of truth and his criticisms of those sources. Peter’s list: Jimmy Dore, The Young Turks, Jeremy Scahill’s Intercepted podcast, The Best of the Left (a “compilation” podcast), and The Nation podcast. Note that these are all internet-based.
• Unlike most Americans, and likely most non-incumbent congressional candidates, Peter understands basics of Modern Monetary Theory. MMT is the study of how the economy of the federal government (of which ours is a fiat currency) truly works. This knowledge confirms that the only reason we do not have Medicare for All and other progressive programs is because the Masters of the Universe don’t want us to have it.

Other resources mentioned during our conversation:

• Vietnam: A multi-part documentary by Ken Burns.
• Black Lives Matter activists interrupted a Bernie Sanders rally early in the 2016 Presidential campaign (one, two)