Vox Populi
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Elizabeth Warren & Bernie Sanders respond to the 2024 election
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Bernie Sanders: It should come as no great surprise…
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’re 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. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago.
Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people 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 spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to 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 major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.
Today, despite strong opposition from a majority of Americans, we continue to spend billions funding the extremist Netanyahu government’s all out war against the Palestinian people which has led to the horrific humanitarian disaster 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 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.
Since 2013, Elizabeth has served as a United States senator from Massachusetts.
Bernie Sanders has served as a senator from Vermont since 2007.
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The seriousness of wealth inequality started with Reagan and worsened under every GOP Administration, consistently favoring tax cuts for the rich and subsidies for corps. For some reason, workers blame it on Dems. Health care insurance is inadequate, and yet to the extent we have it =at all=, that is the Dems’ doing. The GOP tried to vote it down and Trump says he will junk it. The electorate somehow doesn’t acknowledge this and doesn’t realize they will have no access to insurance. As for economy, by the end of Biden’s Administration, wages were up and unemployment down to 4%. The Infrastructure Bill has begun to provide jobs and will increasingly do so in the next few years (whereupon Trump will take credit for it, though the GOP mostly didn’t want it to pass). Also, consider what Biden did for workingmen, protecting more than 1.2 million pensions through the American Rescue Plan’s (ARP) Butch Lewis Act. That blocked cuts to the earned pension benefits of 29,000 United Food and Commercial (UFCW) workers and retirees, mainly in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. Through this Plan – which no Republican voted for – Biden’s Administration protected the pensions of over 65,000 Pennsylvanians, 80,000 Michiganders, 78,000 New Yorkers, 73,000 Illinoisans, 63,000 Ohioans, 63,000 Californians, 42,000 Floridians, 38,000 Missourians, 36,000 Texans, and others. And how did unions reward him? By going for Trumpworld. You can’t say that Dems’ messaging was poor. All those workers knew what was done for them, but, like, you know, they liked DT’s nasty humor and name-calling. Harris denounced price-gouging and was called Communist for doing so. She spoke of tax credits for children, down payments on housing, and new housing to address the shortage. Trump promised none of that, instead, his plans for tariffs, which will jack up prices big time. But the electorate weren’t going to vote for a woman, especially a woman of color. It’s the misogyny and racism, stupid. Messaging is useless when it falls on deaf ears. The Dems did not abandon the working class. Who =did=, in 2017-2021, was Trump, but somehow they didn’t notice. Because they like the guy and his antics. He is “relatable”. They believe his lies. But they will soon know how badly they were tricked.
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Thank you, Alfred, you’ve clarified a number of issues for me. It has baffled me that the majority of white men and the majority of white women would vote for a convicted felon, rapist and conman over a qualified public servant without a blemish on her record. Racism and sexism played a role I’m sure, but men of color voted in large numbers for DT as well.
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Yes!
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Remember civics classes? Without some semblance of national education about how and why our government functions, I am truly afraid that across our nation people of all ages will continue to be ripe for conmen and manipulators of all varieties.
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I agree, Mandy. Lack of education plays an important role in this terrible mistake the American people have made.
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Reposted on FB
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thanks, Barbara.
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