“The American people are angry and want change. And they’re right,” Sanders said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has slammed the Democratic Party for running a “disastrous campaign” in the 2024 presidential election that he says sidelined the working class and the major issues they face in order to maintain a crumbling status quo.
In a scathing statement released on Wednesday, Sanders said that Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss lies squarely on a Democratic apparatus that refuses to acknowledge the actual issues driving voters — and that will also refuse to change for the better despite this year’s historic walloping at the polls, with the party slated to lose not only the White House, but also the Senate and potentially the House.
“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,” said Sanders. “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
Sanders pointed to major issues like the record-high wealth gap, the explosion in damaging technology like artificial intelligence, and the lack of universal health care or even guaranteed paid sick and family leave as issues basically completely sidelined by Democrats.
He also called out Democrats for their relentless support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and for shoveling billions in military assistance to Israeli forces as they slaughter Palestinians en masse.
Worst of all, he said, Democrats will not identify these as the real issues tanking support for their party. Rather, they will stick to unpopular, losing strategies and capitulate to the moneyed interests that have handed control to Donald Trump and his fascist coterie.
“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous 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?” he asked.
“Probably not,” Sanders concluded, asking followers to “stay tuned.”
Indeed, in the aftermath of the election — which Trump won after having swept every swing state — liberal commentators breathlessly said that the Harris campaign was run “flawlessly.” Liberal CNN panelists even suggested that part of the loss can be attributed to Harris and the Democrats not being supportive enough of Israel, a patently absurd statement considering the Biden administration’s and Harris’s full-throated sponsorship of the genocide.
Many liberals suggested that Democrats’ embrace of far right policies and politicians this election didn’t go far enough, and that, in fact, Democrats should shift even further to the right to win support in the future.
There is no evidence supporting this theory. Rather, the opposite is true: Polls repeatedly showed that Harris would gain significant support from voters if she embraced more left-leaning policies like expanding Medicare, taxing the wealthy, raising the minimum wage and enforcing an arms embargo to Israel. Meanwhile, policies championed by progressives like Bernie Sanders, including universal health care, remain extremely popular.
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor. Before coming to Truthout, Sharon had written stories for Pacific Standard, The New Republic, and more. She has a master’s degree in environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter: @zhang_sharon.
Source: Truthout
Featured image: Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to attendees during a “Our Fight, Our Future” rally at The Millennium bowling alley on October 2, 2024, in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell / Getty Images
