Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) today released a statement of frustration about yesterday’s presidential election, and as often happens when Sanders says something, he’s absolutely spot-on.
He said it on Twitter, by posting a picture of the text, so here’s what Sen Sanders said, typed, for easier reading and sharing.
It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is the Latino and Black workers as well.
While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.
Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago.
Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a bad situation even worse.
Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee health care to all as a human right and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.
Today, despite strong opposition from a majority of Americans, we continue to spend billions funding the extremist Netanyahu government’s all out war against the Palestinian people which has led to the horrific humanitarian disaster of mass malnutrition and the starvation of thousands of children.
Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disaster campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.
In the coming weeks and months those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions.
Stay tuned.
Yes, this is exactly what needs to happen.
The Democrats fucked up big time; they didn’t focus on the issues that mattered the most to voters which is the economy. Instead they reran 2016 by running on some moral high ground as not trump, continuity and throwing in abortion.
But Bernie also bears some responsibility for this. He supported Biden and stood aside to allow Biden free reign on the basis that Trump is a threat to democracy. Nobody in the Democrat Party stood up and challenged the leadership because they were all scared of letting Trump win. No meaningful primary contest, then allowing Biden to stay as the candidate so late, aggressive and patronising lies about him being fit to run to silence critics, and then a coronation for Harris who then inherited a campaign already set up fro Biden and already on the wrong track.
The party needs to decide what it stands for. Is it there to just be “the lesser evil” as Trump calls the shots or is it there to offer leadership and a positive unique direction for the US?
Any Americans angry or upset about Trump winning needs to join the Democrats and change it from within. Wrestle it away from the lunatics who have allowed it to fail so dismally.
Drifting more to the right isn’t going to work. The party needs to offer a positive and clear vision of a better future. It needs to address the problems voters actually care about - the economy, financial inequality, the cost of living, the theft of wealth by the corporate class. It’s bloody obvious - so stop fucking about trying to be morally “better than trump” or offer continuity of the current system.
People want meaningful change - what Trump is offering is bad but it is at least offering something to voters. The Democrats should have offered a better vision of change to beat him. Instead they revelled in offering continuity on a path that is causing misery and hardship for Americans. And look where that got them.
Both sides need more alternatives. Corporate Democrats are indeed try to maintain the status quo.
“people want change” is such a cop out. If you actually listen to these people then it’s pretty clear they’re just fucking stupid.
People need therapy and education.
Uh… They want change though. On both sides of the political spectrum. That’s why MAGA took over the Republican party, and that’s why the Dems have been losing so badly these past few elections.
The ones in charge of the DNC are out of touch. First for trying to put Biden back in, then for pushing Harris(who is unpopular) in
I think the only thing that would redeem the Democratic party at this point is for every House and Senate member over the age of 50 to step aside and run byelections for younger replacements.
Just a random stupid idea that will never ever happen of course… but they might as well just burn things and start over right now, so they have 4 years to re-align. Obviously the US citizenry does not believe in them as they are, so why not.
Don’t really see the causation here especially since Trump was already a president before! Where’s the change here?
The first black women president was right there and yet the turn-out was lower than Biden who’s a generic white politician.
Sorry no matter how I look at it, I don’t see any signals to validate this claim.
Don’t really see the causation here especially since Trump was already a president before! Where’s the change here?
I mean Trump brought lots of change for his cosntituency, but that’s not the point. Trump is the most anti-establishment president we’ve seen in a good while. He was a horrible president, but calling him “not change” is just false.
The first black women president was right there and yet the turn-out was lower than Biden who’s a generic white politician.
Yeah that’s not change; that’s filling an item on a list. Harris’s position was literally “nothing will fundamentally change” status quo politics.
So you’re saying it’s voters faults the Democrats didn’t get their votes?
Political parties are there to serve and represent voters the Democrats made the same mistakes as 2016 - they didn’t offer voters things to vote for but things to vote against - being “not trump” is not enough .
It worked in 2020 because people were fed up with trump but it was not the way to beat trump. Instead of taking the moral high ground and campaigning on issues that split America such as abortion, they needed to address what voters actually cared about - the economy.
It’s not voters fault that the Democrats failed to get a clear positive vision of how they would change the economy for the better. That would have beaten trump. Instead their message on the number one priority for voters was “we’ve done a good job, what are you complaining about?”.
That’s why they lost the election. The sooner that message sinks in the sooner they can rebuilt for the mid terms. They need to be FOR something, not just the lesser evil.
I feel like this sort of logical acrobatics is exactly the cause that got you guys there. In other countries we’d call spade a spade and get on with it.
Americans will literally do anything else but accept responsibility.
if Americans truly wanted change that badly they would have voted 3rd party and amend their stupid political system. Voting for Trump is not wanting change — it’s wanting to justify your own terrible person.
Okay a lot can be said about Trump but he is an anti status quo candidate whose voter base consists of disenchanted voters who also happen to be racist as fuck.
What is this magical “Status quo” word supposed to mean here? Because Trumps is everything status quo and even more direct so. He’s literally supported by billionaires and republicans that run US right now.
There’s much mental acrobatics here when the reality is much more simple. People are fucking stupid and american 2 party democratic system is fundamentally broken
Because Trumps is everything status quo and even more direct so.
Huh? Trump wants to deport immigrants, imposs tariffs on China (and everyone else he doesn’t like), buddy up to Putin, leave or weaken NATO, generally destroy civil rights, etc etc. How the fuck is any of this status quo policy?
That’s literally what half of your leaders want too, no? Literally almost every republican agrees with this.
