Bernie Sanders slams Democrats for ‘abandoning working class people’

On By Littum

Senator Bernie Sanders is blaming the Democratic Party after Vice President Kamala Harris lost to now-President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans gained control of the Senate.

In a statement shared on social media Wednesday, the U.S. senator from Vermont said party leadership must have “serious political discussions” about Latino and black workers voting for Republican candidates.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders wrote. “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”

Sanders, 83, highlighted several issues he believes the nation has failed to address under the Biden-Harris Administration, from wealth inequality and a deteriorating standard of living to high prescription drug costs and the lack of guaranteed medical leave.

Although an independent, Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party and has long advocated policies such as Medicare for All and a higher federal minimum wage.

Sanders defeats Republican Gerald Malloy in the Vermont race

Sanders’ statement comes a day after he won a fourth Senate term on Election Day, defeating the Republican challenger Gerald Malloy62, and secure another six years in Washington.

He joined the Senate in 2007 after being elected to the US House in 1991. He previously ran for president in 2016 and 2020.

Malloy, a former U.S. Army officer and business executive from Perkinsville, Vermont, campaigned as a staunch conservative. Originally from Boston, he graduated West Point in 1984 and holds a master’s degree from Temple University.

The result was widely expected in a state that has not elected one Republican US Senator since 2000. Malloy, 62, had previously run for Senate in 2022 and lost to Democrat Peter Welch.

Read Bernie Sanders’ full statement

It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that 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 also the Latino and black workers.

While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they are 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. Amazingly, real, inflation-adjusted weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago.

Despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people today 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 the fact that we spend far more per per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation that does not 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 the major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.

Today, despite strong opposition from a majority of Americans, we continue to spend billions to fund the extremist Netanyahu government’s all-out war against the Palestinian people, which has led to the horrific humanitarian disaster of mass malnutrition and starvation of thousands of children.

Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from his disastrous campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of thousands of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas on how we can take on the increasingly powerful oligarchy that has so much economic and political power? Probably not.

In the coming weeks and months, those who care about grassroots democracy and economic justice will have to have some very serious policy discussions.

Follow along.

Starring: Jeremy Yurow