Left Foot Forward
The senator accused the party of 'abandoning working class people'
Independent US senator Bernie Sanders has issued a damning critique of the Democratic Party after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
Sanders, who twice unsuccessfully sought the Democrats’ nomination for president, accused the party of ‘abandoning working class people’.
In a statement released on November 6, Sanders said: “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 Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they are right.”
He then went on to say: “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 than they were 50 years ago.”
His statement concluded with a vicious critique of the Democratic Party. He said: “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? 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.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a labor rally for the Harris-Walz campaign in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on October 27, 2024.
(Photo: Nathan Morris/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
"While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change," said the Vermont Independent. "And they're right."
Jessica Corbett
Nov 06, 2024
COMMON DREAMS
Shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her concession speech on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders forcefully called out Democratic Party leadership for losing the White House and at least one chamber of Congress to Republicans.
"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," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. "First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well."
"While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change," said the senator, who decisively won reelection on Tuesday as Republicans reclaimed the upper chamber. "And they're right."
After seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, Sanders spent this cycle campaigning for Harris, warning of Republican President-elect Donald Trump's return, blasting billionaire involvement in U.S. politics, and urging Democrats to better serve working people.
"Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? ...Probably not."
In Sanders' new statement, he highlighted U.S. income and wealth inequality, worker concerns about artificial intelligence, and the federal government's failure to provide paid leave and universal healthcare while pouring billions of dollars into Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.
"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."
"In the coming weeks and months those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions," Sanders concluded. "Stay tuned."
Progressives—who have responded to Trump's Electoral College and popular vote win by criticizing billionaires who backed him and promising "unprecedented resistance" during his second term—echoed Sanders' remarks.
Sharing Sanders' statement on X—the social media platform owned by billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk—United Auto Workers (UAW) communications director Jonah Furman said: "The task has been clear for a decade. The question is only whether and when we will rise to the task."
Separately, the union's president, Shawn Fain, said in a Wednesday statement that "UAW members around the country clocked in today under the same threat they faced yesterday: unchecked corporate greed destroying our lives, our families, and our communities."
"We've said all along that no matter who is in the White House, our fight remains the same," Fain continued, pointing to the battle against "broken trade laws" like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and fights for good union jobs, a secure retirement for everyone, a living wage, affordable healthcare, and time for families.
"It's time for Washington, D.C. to put up or shut up, no matter the party, no matter the candidate," added Fain, whose union endorsed Harris. "Will our government stand with the working class, or keep doing the bidding of the billionaires? That's the question we face today. And that's the question we'll face tomorrow. The answer lies with us. No matter who's in office."
"Will our government stand with the working class, or keep doing the bidding of the billionaires?"
In a post-election column, Chuck Idelson, former communications senior strategist for National Nurses United, made the case that "amid the postmortems and reckoning that will now follow the wreckage of Donald Trump's return to 'absolute' power, as authorized by the Supreme Court, there are... two notes in particular that deserve a deeper dive."
"In Missouri, a state Trump won by 58%, voters also acted to increase the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour and to require employers to provide paid sick leave to workers," he pointed out. "In Nebraska, another red state won by Trump, voters also passed a paid sick leave measure, Initiative 436, by 75%."
In addition to the ballot measures, Idelson highlighted that "in the multitude of exit poll results, one particularly stands out—94% of registered Republicans voted for Trump, the exact same percentage he received in 2020. The heavy campaign focus on pulling away Republican voters from Trump turned out to be a pipe dream. The old cliché 'it's the economy stupid,' triumphed again."
Harris' campaign, he argued, "reflected the direction the Democratic Party establishment has taken, away from working-class issues since the advent of neoliberal policies in the 1970s and carried out by most Democratic Party presidents since."
Historian Harvey J. Kaye, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, took aim at the Democratic Party on social media Wednesday, noting failures to stand up to billionaires, raise the minimum wage, and pass the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, said in a Wednesday statement that "a self-avowed authoritarian successfully wielded the economic frustrations of millions to win the most consequential election of our nation's history. The Democratic establishment has only itself to blame."
"Voters demanded a fundamental overhaul of a rigged economic system. When neoliberal Democrats dithered, Donald Trump offered to clear the board, and voters chose the dark unknown rather than the status quo," Pearl added. "The only question remaining is, why are Democrats surprised? This is the entirely predictable result of a multidecade strategy to appease the rich that met no serious resistance."
The Sunrise Movement—a youth-led climate group that worked to reach millions of young voters in swing states to defeat Trump—similarly stressed on social media Wednesday that "last night's results were a call for change. Millions of people are fed up after living through decades of a rigged economy and corrupt political system. They are looking for someone to blame. It's critical the Dem Party takes that seriously."
"For decades, Democrats have prioritized corporations over people. This is the result. Every working American feels the crisis. We can't pay rent. Our government can't pass basic legislation. The WEATHER has turned against us. And Dems look us in the eye and say it's fine," the group continued. "Trump loves corporations even more than Democrats do, but he ran an anti-establishment campaign that gave an answer to people's desire for change."
"We can stop him, and we must," Sunrise said of Trump. "But it's going to take many thousands of people taking to the streets and preparing to strike. And it's going to take mass movements putting out a better vision for our country than Trumpism and proving that we can make it happen."
‘US election post-mortem: What went wrong for Kamala Harris – and what happens next?’
There were tears shed, a crushing sense of disappointment and an outpouring of love among the thousands of Harris supporters gathered at Washington’s Howard University to hear its most famous former student formally concede defeat.
It was an emotional occasion for the candidate too. Propelled into the hot seat barely 100 days ago, she used her 15-minute speech to commit herself to the peaceful transfer of power to Donald Trump (in deliberate contrast in his own refusal to do so in 2020) and to urge her followers to keep alive the flame of social progress.
Yet, conspicuously, the Vice President failed to reflect any early lessons she drew from her devastating defeat or even to acknowledge that the scale of the election loss would require a serious process to understand what went wrong.
We should be under no illusions. This was a disastrous night for the Democrats who lost the White House to a convicted criminal, failed to win one of the seven swing states and lost the popular vote to a Republican for the first time in two decades. They lost control of the Senate too and – with votes still being countered across the US – their somewhat modest goal to retake the House of Representatives lies in the balance.
Such is the grip that Trump exists on the Republican Party that this MAGA takeover of the US government – supplemented by the solidly conservative Supreme Court – gives the former President a free hand in pushing forward his radical right-wing agenda when in office.
Disaster for the Democrats
Harris underperformed across the board compared to Biden in 2020, even among women despite the confident hopes that abortion and the Vice President’s elevation as the candidate would mobilise female voters to carry her towards the White House.
Even more concerning is how Trump is attracting voters who have traditionally been solid Democrat-supporting. Take Latino men. In 2020, Biden won this group by 23 points while in this election Trump had a lead of eight points.
Falling support among working class and lower middle-income voters (white and non-white) is a deep concern too. About six in ten Americans are in this group. They are unlikely to be college-educated, have been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis and have higher concerns about the impact of immigration.
It looks like about 54% of this group supported Trump this time with 44% supporting Harris, continuing a trend that has been playing out for at least the last three elections [LINK] and reflecting a deep-seated problem facing other centre-left parties in the western world too, not least in Britain.
An opinion poll published earlier this year by the Progressive Policy Institute, a US-based think tank, found that 45 percent of American working-class voters believed the Democratic Party had moved “too far to the left,” and 40 percent disapproved of the party for being too heavily influenced by “special interests like public sector unions, environmental activists, and academics.”
Certainly, as with Labour, Democrat activists, representatives and decision-makers have become more educated, metropolitan and socially liberal and, in doing so, have become increasingly detached from the views, identity and outlook of working-class voters.
Defeating the rise of the right
A post-mortem of this election must surely identify this disconnection as a key factor that needs addressing. It is also the reason that it is highly unlikely that Kamala Harris will be the Democrats’ candidate for President in 2028.
In the extraordinary circumstances of Biden’s departure in the summer, Harris was the best Democratic candidate to grab the baton, and she outperformed the expectations of many. But she faced huge obstacles to win this election and, ultimately, these proved insurmountable.
There are suggestions that America – or certain parts of America – wasn’t ready to elect a Black woman as their commander-in-chief. Possibly. But the need to reconnect to its working-class base is a far deeper issue than the colour and gender of the candidate – and he or she will need to reflect and embody a serious effort to reconnect.
In the blame game that will follow, Biden will not be spared. Clinging on to the White House for so long robbed his party of the time needed to select a candidate with the qualities and space to build a relationship with voters.
Biden was able to win back some support from core traditional Democrat constituencies in 2020. But many senior party figures believe that, once in office, he pandered too much to the left and was, for the first two years at least, tin-eared to the concerns of working-class voters about cost of living and immigration.
The rise of right-wing populism with its angry calls for change is proving an enduringly successful feature of western politics. Yet established mainstream centre-left parties have, in response, too often been tempted down an overly technocratic path becoming defenders of the status quo.
Democrats must work with Labour and other like-minded parties serious about power to discuss remedies to these shared political and electoral issues and threats, and to become once again the champions of radical change.
It’s happened before and must happen again if we are to avoid many more nights like the one this week.
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