cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22940159

Bernie Sanders caused a stir last week, when the independent senator from Vermont and two-time contender for the Democratic presidential nomination sent a post-election email to his progressive supporters across the country. In it, he argued that the Democrats suffered politically in 2024 at least in part because they ran a campaign that focused on “protecting the status quo and tinkering around the edges.”

In contrast, said Sanders, “Trump and the Republicans campaigned on change and on smashing the existing order.” Yes, he explained, “the ‘change’ that Republicans will bring about will make a bad situation worse, and a society of gross inequality even more unequal, more unjust and more bigoted.”

Despite that the reality of the threat they posed, Trump and the Republicans still won a narrow popular-vote victory for the presidency, along with control of the US House. That result has inspired an intense debate over the future direction not just of the Democratic Party but of the country. And the senator from Vermont is in the thick of it.

In his email, Sanders, a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus who campaigned in states across the country this fall for Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic ticket, asked a blunt question: “Will the Democratic leadership learn the lessons of their defeat and create a party that stands with the working class and is prepared to take on the enormously powerful special interests that dominate our economy, our media and our political life?”

His answer: “Highly unlikely. They are much too wedded to the billionaires and corporate interests that fund their campaigns.”

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Just shut up and never ever criticize the party that only ever moves to the right, or you want the fascists to win!

    You will never understand that votes are earned, not demanded.

        • UsernameHere@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Bernie Sanders: votes with the Democratic Party You: this is not called working with Bernie Sanders!

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            Sanders voting with the party is not the party working with Sanders.

            I’m done talking to you. All you do is deliberately misrepresent my positions.

            • UsernameHere@lemmy.world
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              10 hours ago

              Bernie Sanders: votes with Democratic Party because that is what politicians do for work.

              You: “Nooooo! This misrepresents my positions!”

              • FutileRecipe@lemmy.world
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                8 hours ago

                Bernie is working with the Democrats. The Democrats are not working with Bernie. Bernie is picking the lesser of the two evils, as he sees it.

                The criticism is not that Bernie doesn’t work with them, but rather they are not working with him. There is a difference between those two.