Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
Let’s take a deep breath and try to understand what’s going on in American politics.
Over the past ten years, an increasingly reactionary Republican Party has become the party of the working class in this country. Polls have shown that since 2010 there has been a significant increase in the percentage of White, Black, and Latino blue-collar workers who identify as Republican, while support among those who identify as Democrats has declined.
Why is that?
How has it happened that the Democratic Party, the party of the working class under FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton is now solidly Republican?
Meanwhile, poll after poll also shows that Donald Trump has an excellent chance of being re-elected next November with significant support from the working families of this country.
How does that happen?
How does it happen that a pathologically-lying billionaire who said he was going to stand up for working families, yet passed tax cuts where 83 percent of the benefits went to the top 1 percent, has any chance of being elected again?
How does it happen that someone who said he was going to provide health care to everyone, yet tried to throw 32 million people off of health care, has any chance of being elected again?
How does it happen that someone who promised to take on the greed of Wall Street, but then proceeded to appoint more Wall Street titans to high positions than any president in history, has any chance of being elected again?
How does it happen that someone who said they were proud to take away a woman’s right to choose with his Supreme Court nominations has any chance of being elected again?
How does it happen that somebody who says migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” has any chance of being elected again?
How does it happen that someone who doesn’t believe in the reality of climate change has any chance of being elected again?
Really, how does that happen?
I am asking you.
That’s why I am writing today.
As we begin mobilizing to re-elect Joe Biden in 2024 and elect Democrats to the House and Senate I want to get a sense from you about what the president and Democratic candidates need to be doing and saying to regain the support they’ve lost from the working class of this country, as well as young people and people of color.
Where do you think things stand politically today? What kind of campaign has to be run in order to generate grassroots excitement and increase a progressive voter turnout?
I don’t have to tell you what this election is all about. Bottom line: it will determine whether our country continues as a democracy or whether we move aggressively down the path of authoritarianism and oligarchy.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders represents the state of Vermont.
