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DEMOCRATS MUST CHOOSE: THE ELITES OR THE WORKING CLASS  
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Bernie Sanders
November 12, 2024
Boston Globe
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_ Bernie says; "they can’t represent both." _

Supporters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigned outside a
polling place in McAllen, Texas, on Nov. 5., Joel Martinez/Associated
Press

 

The results of the 2024 election have confirmed a reality that is too
frequently denied by Democratic Party leaders and strategists: The
American working class is angry — and for good reason.

They want to know why the very rich are getting much richer, and the
CEOs of major corporations make almost 300 times more than their
average employees, while weekly wages remain stagnant
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and 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck
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They want to know why corporate profits soar while companies shut down
factories in America and move to low-wage countries.

They want to know why the food industry enjoys record breaking profits
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while they can’t afford their grocery bills.

They want to know why they can’t afford to go to a doctor or pay for
their prescription drugs, and worry about going bankrupt if they end
up in a hospital.
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Donald Trump won this election because he tapped into that anger.

Did he address any of these serious issues in a thoughtful or
meaningful way? Absolutely not.

What he did do was divert the festering anger in our country
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at a greedy and out-of-touch corporate elite into a politics that
served his political goals and will end up further enriching his
fellow billionaires.

Trump’s “genius” is his ability to divide the working class so
that tens of millions of Americans will reject solidarity with their
fellow workers and pave the way for huge tax breaks for the very rich
and large corporations.

While Trump did talk about capping credit card interest rates at 10
percent, and a new trade policy with China, his fundamental
explanation as to why the working class was struggling was that
millions of illegal immigrants have invaded America and that we are
now an “occupied country.”
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In his pathologically dishonest world, undocumented immigrants are
illegally participating in our elections and voting for Democrats.
They are creating massive amounts of crime, driving wages down, and
taking our jobs. They are getting free health care and other benefits
that are denied to American citizens. They are even eating our pets.

That explanation is grossly racist, cruel, and fallacious. But it is
an explanation.

And what do the Democrats have to say about the crises facing working
families? What is their full-throated explanation, pounded away day
after day in the media, in the halls of Congress, and in town meetings
throughout the country as to why tens of millions of workers, in the
richest country on earth, are struggling to put food on the table or
pay the rent? Where is the deeply felt outrage that we are the only
major country on earth not to guarantee health care for all as a human
right while insurance and drug companies make huge profits?

How do they explain supporting billions of dollars in military aid to
the right-wing extremist government of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, which has created an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in
Gaza that is causing massive malnutrition and starvation for thousands
of children?

In my view, the Democrats lost this election because they ignored the
justified anger of working class America and became the defenders of a
rigged economic and political system.

This election was largely about class and change and the Democrats, in
both cases, were often on the wrong side. As Jimmy Williams Jr., the
president of the Painters Union
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said, “The Democratic Party has continued to fail to prioritize a
strong, working-class message that addresses issues that really matter
to workers. The party did not make a positive case for why workers
should vote for them, only that they were not Donald Trump. That’s
not good enough anymore!”

As an Independent member of the US Senate, I caucus with the
Democrats. In that capacity I have been proud to work with President
Biden on one of the most ambitious pro-worker agendas in modern
history.

We passed the American Rescue Plan to pull us out of the COVID-19
economic downturn; made historic investments in rebuilding our
infrastructure and in transforming our energy system; began the
process of rebuilding our manufacturing base; lowered the cost of
prescription drugs and forgave student debt for five million
Americans. Biden promised to be the most progressive president since
FDR and, on domestic issues, he kept his word.

But, unlike FDR, these achievements are almost never discussed within
the context of a grossly unfair economy that continues to fail
ordinary Americans. Yes. In the past few years we have made some
positive changes. We must acknowledge, however, that what we’ve done
is nowhere near enough.

In 1936, in his second inaugural address, FDR spoke not only of his
administration’s enormous achievements in combatting the Great
Depression, but of the painful economic realities that millions of
Americans were still experiencing.

Roosevelt’s words remain relevant today: “I see millions of
families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family
disaster hangs over them day by day … I see millions denied
education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the
lot of their children … I see one-third of a nation ill-housed,
ill-clad, ill-nourished.”

Of course, the world is today profoundly different than it was in
1936. We are not in an economic depression. Unemployment is relatively
low. People are not facing starvation.

But the Democratic leadership must recognize that, in a rapidly
changing economy, working families face an enormous amount of economic
pain, anxiety and hopelessness — and they want change. The status
quo is not working for them.

In politics you can’t fight something with nothing. The Democratic
Party needs to determine which side it is on in the great economic
struggle of our times, and it needs to provide a clear vision as to
what it stands for. Either you stand with the powerful oligarchy of
our country, or you stand with the working class. You can’t
represent both.

While Democrats will be in the minority in the Senate and (probably)
the House in the new Congress, they will still have the opportunity to
bring forth a strong legislative agenda that addresses the needs of
working families.

If Republicans choose to vote those bills down, the American working
class will learn quickly enough as to which party represents them, and
which party represents corporate greed.

In my view, here are some of the working class priorities that
Democrats must fight for:

* We must end Citizens United and stop billionaires from buying
elections.
* We must raise the $7.25 federal minimum wage to a living wage —
at least $17 an hour.
* We must pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act to make it
easier for workers to form unions and end illegal union busting.
* We must protect senior citizens by increasing Social Security
benefits and extending the solvency of the program by lifting the cap
on taxable income.
* We must bring back defined benefit pension plans so that workers
can retire with security.
* We must do what every other wealthy nation does and guarantee
health care to all as a human right, beginning with the expansion of
Medicare to cover home health care, dental, hearing, and vision.
* We must cut prescription drug prices in half, no more than is paid
in other countries.
* We must provide guaranteed paid family and medical leave.
* We must guarantee equal pay for equal work.
* We must create fair trade policies that work for workers, not just
corporate CEOs.
* We must build 3 million units of low income and affordable
housing.
* We must make public colleges and universities tuition free,
childcare affordable for all, and strengthen public education by
paying teachers the salaries they deserve.
* We must adopt a progressive tax system which addresses the massive
income and wealth inequality we are experiencing by demanding that the
very wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes.
* We must save taxpayer dollars by ending the massive waste, fraud
and abuse that exists in the Pentagon.

These are extremely popular ideas. The Democratic Party would do well
to listen to the clear directive of American voters, and deliver. The
simple fact is: if you stand with working people, they will stand with
you. In my view, if Democrats deliver on an agenda like this, they can
win back the working class of our country and the White House.

_Bernie Sanders is an Independent US senator from Vermont._

 

* The Democratic Party; The 2024 Elections;
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