Summary
Bernie Sanders criticizes the Democratic Party for neglecting the working class, leading to their recent election losses.
He highlights issues like economic inequality, job displacement, healthcare costs, and foreign policy as key concerns for the American people.
Sanders questions whether the Democratic leadership will address these issues or remain beholden to big money interests.
He’s 100% correct. This failure is a failure of the DNC to actually pay attention to what the voters want.
This election, like every failed election effort since 2000, was a referendum on the democratic party platform: neoliberal business as usual for the top 15% sprinkled with “we’re not Republicans”
“we’re not Republicans”
Trust us, we are different. Oh how specifically are we different? What a great question, is it not the best part of this nation to be able to ask such things. Anyway, as I was saying…
I don’t believe that it is. I believe that the problem lies in the fact that we’re not communicating effectively with the voting base. Her policies we’re not bad and effectively DID target the working class, for example child care and expanding taxes on the upper class. Her economic policies were strong and we would have seen benefits. However, none of this matters if this information isn’t getting to the voter base.
Conservatives are actively targeting Gen Z and nonpoliticals with absolutely bullshit lies - for example, staying that liberals are actually racist, that DEI is making things worse for people, and that our whole policy is based on insults and hatred. Of course, to anyone paying any attention, this is blatantly false…but to an outside viewer, whose struggling to make ends meet, who’s single and insular, whose constantly told that women have it rough (and nothing about how to deal with men’s problems) they find the conservative arguments start to gain roots.
We want to win next time? We need to talk to people. Tell them what being a man really means. That empathy, not control, is what a society like the US should be based on.
Harris went too far right in an attempt to court the Republican vote. She preached peace in Gaza but she campaigned with known war-hawk Liz Cheney and staunchly defended Israel. She said she’s going to stand up against big businesses and help the environment but she talked about having Republicans in her cabinets and not ban fracking. She campaigned on being tough on the border but expected immigrants to vote for her. She did a lot of stupid shit and no one wanted to pay attention because everyone was scared of criticizing her because of their fear of Trump. They literally ran on a “moderate” platform when campaigning against a far right fascist wanna-be dictator. This should have been a slam dunk victory for them.
Democrats need to get their head of their asses and actually have progressives run. Until then, all they will do is slide more and more to the right and disenfranchise more of their constituents who want their society to progress and not cater to the radicals.
This should have been a slam dunk victory for them
I mean, sure, if close to half of the country hadn’t become really, really shitty people with no morals.
It’s tough to win on points like you’re talking about when the core problem requires undoing a multi-decade cultural shift to having absolutely zero integrity and most of the 7 sins being core values
The only focused Democratic message for the past 8+ years has been, “We need to stop Trump,” which I agree with, but without Trump, I can’t think of a single, unified message. That’s not enough to get the general population fired up and excited to vote for Dems. One thing that made Obama so popular was he had specific goals and gave people hope.
Trump, in the meantime, has been feeding people all sorts of promises and hopes and dreams. They’re all terrible and full of shit, but that is a more powerful message than just, “We need to stop Harris.”
I’m also legitimately convinced that the average American person is just an asshole and likes other assholes. Trump is the most conceited, whiney, cry baby, know it all, jagoff and everybody knows it. He wears it like a medal. And people love it man. They just eat it up.
It’s just like Carlin said. The politicians come from us. Because they are us.
Trump is the most conceited, whiney, cry baby, know it all, jagoff and everybody knows it. He wears it like a medal. And people love it man. They just eat it up.
That’s the thing. I’m sick of the media painting this as a “they’re holding their noses and voting” thing. This dude doesn’t win despite his vulger rallies and his racist, sexist, homophobic, crazy, whiney, criminal, and arrogant behavior… He wins because of that shit.
I don’t know, I try to be a little more optimistic. over 250million eligible voters, only 70million voted for Trump. That’s less than a 1/3 and could be lower if you included the entire population. People will spend extra time to pursue things that will benefit them directly, there just needs to be better communication about the good things that will benefit them for their time, not the things to be fearful of because people will tune that out (as shown by the voter turnout).
You know what does excite the dems though? And also the republicans?
Actual progressive policies……
As close as this election was, if Bernie betrayed the Democratic Party and ran as an independent in 2016, do you think he would have won
I do
Funny how none of that ever gets even close to reality though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It used to be maddening, now it’s just disappointing
Hi. Working tradesman. I still voted blue even when the 4 years under trump were mostly better for me than under Biden. Of course most likely coasting off of Obama’s era. But I got no relief under Biden. I pay $20k a year for my Healthcare and still have to pay thousands a year out of pocket for visits. My family in Ukraine is still unsure what’s going to happen in the next year. Many of brothers in my local are unemployed now during the hardest time to pay to live. We hear the record profits the corporations made and swindled the working class dry so we can eat yet there has been no relief. How did making 6 figures for a family of 5 turn into almost living pay check to pay check.
I’m ok with sacrifice if it means others get the help they need. But I don’t think anyone got the help they needed. We sacrificed for no benifit to anyone but the elite, and we are continuing to be ignored.
This is what Sanders is talking about. And I’m afraid of what Trump is going to do for many Americans. For my Ukrainian family back home. For my neighbor who is Taiwanese. But recently I’m more worried to keep food on the table for my kids. I don’t even care who won anymore. I have election and political fatigue. I did what was asked. I keep doing what everyone thinks is right. But I’m burning out.
You’re likely eligible for your states Medicare subsidies. Democrats fixed the family glitch in 2022, so you’ll likely save thousands switching off your employer plan, even if you’re making low six figures.
Of course those subsidies expire in 2025, and there is a snowballs chance in hell of those getting renewed now.
Democrats did a lot of things to improve the lives of working class, at least as much as they could get pass the Republican house.
Their problem is messaging. They are terrible at communicating what they’re doing, and how it’s going to help. I mean part of that problem is the media (ie fox news) is allowed to lie and Dems try to tell the truth. The playing field is not really level.
Another headache is that everything dems do is means tested, so you’ve got to jump through a bunch of hoops to figure out if you’re even eligible for any new program. Even if the programs do give relief to people, it’s much harder to message on a complicated program with layers of bureaucracy rather than “everyone gets 3k per child no matter what.”
I’m in social work and this is huge. Trying to sign people up for these programs feels so invasive. I regularly apologize for the invasion of privacy and the implied judgement of these means-tested forms.
This is the legacy of the Clintons and those that followed them giving credit to the idea that you have to prove you’re deserving. Not only do means-tested programs have a negative psychological impact, they’re stupidly inefficient. They require lots of outside labor to make them even marginally effective.
The people who need them often barely have time/energy to take care of themselves, so you end up needing this whole extra layer of professionals to help them through the barrier. They all need grant it state funding of their own. All that money could be more efficiently distributed if the gates were gone, or even designed to be useable by the people who need them, in the circumstances they’re in.
I really wish the DNC would get a blowhard demagogue cult of personality lying piece of shit like Trump to be their figurehead and then just actually do good shit once in office. Like read the fucking room man, you’re playing to sound policy when the people are voting for bloviating dickheads. Just be one of those and then worry about doing the right thing. Quoth Trae Crowder a few years back: “Do you want to be right, or do you want to win?”
Bernie is correct for the 100th time. But is little too late now. Unless Dems are serious about tackling working class issues. I don’t see anything changing. Many people view the Dem party not for the average person anymore.
The party is done. I switched to being a Independent. The machine is too big to change from the outside, and those that are the inside are blind to what is happening to regular people that would result in voters not showing up or just voting for a Fascist.
Every path people have tried to reform the party or change course ends up dead end. I’m over it. I’m not doing the whole lesser evil shit anymore. I wish them the best because I don’t want Republicans to endlessly win. Until Dems choose to stand for something collectively, outside donor interests all the time. It will be a loop of them losing elections.
Agreed 100%.
If they did this, they would easily carry states with high populations of blue collar and union laborers. Stop paying lip service and actually do it.
States that have had major manufacturing centers in the late 20th century like the Rust Belt.
Like…Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
The Democratic party is just paying the price for ignoring blue collar middle class voters since the late 80s. They took those votes for granted, and they lost them over time. Just like after blue collar folks they then took the votes of minorities for granted…and now they’re losing those.
All they need to do is ask what they’ve done for these people lately…like in the past few decades. And when they came really answer that in any terms other than what they prevented the other guys from doing, they shouldn’t have to wonder why enthusiasm for their party’s candidates is at an all time low.
Literally ZERO people I know personally have actually liked and actively, enthusiastically supported any democratic presidential nominee since Obama. That’s twelve fucking years and zero candidates that got people excited and inspired. Most of my friends voted for these candidates, but nobody liked them.
Honestly, if it weren’t for the opposition being so unbearably awful, I’d almost be happy to see the Democratic party handed loss after loss until and unless they learn their lesson and stop taking their base for granted.
Do people mean anything other than commodity and gas prices when they say “working class issues?” I feel like abortion, healthcare, education, and student loans are also working class issues, but I take it that’s not what people mean.
Let’s start with the 70% or so of people that report living paycheck to paycheck[1] rather than claiming that the 'economy is doing fine. Let’s even acknowledge that inflation is making good and housing prohibitively expensive[2].
The things you mentioned are important. For people that are struggling to keep a roof over their heads though the issue of Healthcare or education tend to be less critical than keeping food on the table. We can’t keep saying the economy is doing fine while people keeping trying to tell us it isn’t.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/
I appreciate the sources and the rigor. But is it not the left that’s consistently pushing for a higher minimum wage? For exploring solutions like UBI or even just expanded social safety nets for the people who fall out the bottom?
The costs of healthcare continues to skyrocket, when we’re already paying twice what other nations are. Healthcare bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy. But is it not the left (sorry, I started the “is it not” thing, and I feel like I need to keep it going, ahem…) that’s been pushing universal healthcare? For transparency in hospital costs?
I’m just saying that I don’t think it’s accurate to say the DNC has “abandoned the working class.” The DNC’s never been able to communicate effectively (or perhaps they’ve just never been believed) when they try to explain that they haven’t abandoned the working class. And they’re not very good at fellating microphones.
Man, if he’d form a populist left party and stop caucusing with the Dems, he might get a lot of enthusiastic support and candidates running locally soon
We could also do this ourselves, if we could find a way to organize it.
I’m sure with enough attention he’d acknowledge, and maybe support it.
It may sound silly but what’s the alternative?
I really think ranked choice voting is the answer here. It will open up the opportunity for third parties to actually gain traction.
A third party, eh? Nah, he needs to take over the Democratic Party once and for all.
He had momentum, the DNC, also run by our oligarchs denied him of the opportunity.
No there needs to be a place for “moderates” and embarrassed former-republicans to gather. The actual left can mobilize around Sanders and the current Republican party can die.
