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Bernie Sanders accuses Democrats of 'failing working class people'


Bernie Sanders accuses Democrats of 'failing working class people'

Sen. Bernie Sanders is blaming the Democratic Party after Vice President Kamala Harris lost to now-President 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 needs to have “serious political discussions” about whether Latino and Black workers vote for Republican candidates.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that has failed the working class would find that the working class has failed 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 problems he said the country has failed to address under the Biden-Harris administration, from wealth inequality and deteriorating living standards to high prescription drug prices and a lack of guaranteed sick leave .

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

Sanders defeats Republican Gerald Malloy in Vermont race

Sanders' statement comes a day after he won a fourth term in the Senate on Election Day, defeating Republican challenger Gerald Malloy, 62, and securing another six years in Washington.

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

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

The result was eagerly awaited in a state that has not elected a Republican U.S. senator since 2000. Malloy, 62, had already run for the 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 failed working class people is finding that the working class has failed them. First it was the white working class, and now it's 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.

While the super-rich are doing phenomenally well today, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and income and wealth inequality is greater than ever before. Incredibly, the real, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of the average American worker are actually lower today than they were 50 years ago.

Despite the explosion in technology and labor productivity, many young people today will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them fear that artificial intelligence and robotics will make the bad situation even worse.

Although we now spend far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation that does not guarantee health care for all as a human right, and we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We are the only country among major countries that cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.

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

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

In the coming weeks and months, those concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice will need to have some very serious political discussions.

Stay tuned.

Contributor: Jeremy Yurow

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