Photos: YouTube Screenshots
If you believe in democracy, if you believe in science, if you believe in justice and workers’ rights, let me be very clear: The next several months will be the most important in modern American history.
Unfortunately, we are confronting a very difficult and complicated political situation.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal released a poll showing Trump leading in almost every swing state. He leads by 5 in Arizona, 3 in Michigan, 4 in Nevada, 3 in Pennsylvania, and is tied in Wisconsin.
If Trump wins even two of those states, it’s game over.
And I think sometimes we slouch off the idea that Trump can win. It’s hard to imagine that someone who was such a menace to the working class of this country could be popular enough with them to win a second term — especially after we all lived through his first. I also believe sometimes we don’t think enough about just how bad it will be policy-wise if he is re-elected.
Take one issue for example: Climate change.
Trump does not believe in climate change.
So what does that mean?
It means that not only all of the work we have done in trying to transform our energy systems away from fossil fuel will be undone, but every other country in the world is going to say “Hey if the second largest emitter in the world is giving up, than we’re not going to do it either.”
And that really means dooming our kids and future generations to a very, very unhealthy, perhaps uninhabitable world.
So you don’t need to know anything more than that to understand how dangerous Trump is.
But obviously the danger is much greater than just climate change.
Take another issue for example: American democracy.
Trump does not believe in, or care about, the future of American democracy.
So what does that mean?
It means that if he wins, you can expect more extreme gerrymandering, more laws and regulations making it easier for billionaires to buy elections, more efforts to keep people of color and young people from the ballot box, more election workers being harassed and threatened, more refusing to accept the outcome of election results, more political violence and, as a result of his policies and lies, more and more people increasingly believing democracy itself does not work for them.
I happen to believe that what this really means is that if Trump wins, the almost 250-year experiment of American democracy is all but over.
But obviously the danger is much greater than just that.
Trump has already tried to take away health care from tens of millions of people. He’ll try again in a second term.
Trump signed tax cuts where almost all the benefits went to the top 1 percent. He’ll try to make them permanent in a second term.
Trump brags about appointing 3 justices to the Supreme Court who helped repeal Roe v. Wade. He and his supporters have escalated their attacks on women’s’ rights across the country. In a second term he’ll try for a national abortion ban.
Other issues like education, gun control, criminal justice reform, income and wealth inequality, the cost of prescription drugs, workers rights, LGBTQ rights and more will all move backward.
Bottom line: We have to appreciate how unbelievably severe this current moment is.
Many of us believe that while the Biden administration can lay claim to some significant accomplishments, they are simply not enough given the very serious crises facing the working families of our country. Further, millions of us strongly disagree with the President’s position on the war in Gaza.
So what are we as progressives to do in this election?
First, we must all acknowledge that sitting out this election or even voting for Trump is definitely not the answer. That leads to catastrophe.
So then what?
In this unprecedented moment in American history we must make clear to the Democratic leadership and everyone else that we cannot return to the same old, same old establishment politics.
We must make it clear that if Democrats are given another chance after this election we cannot continue to ignore the needs of tens of millions of working families. We cannot continue to accept a political system where billionaires buy elections and an economy which has more income and wealth inequality than at any time since the 1920s. We cannot accept a government where the very rich get much richer while a majority of Americans live in economic desperation. We must go further on climate change. And we must restore faith in American democracy.
We must make it clear that we will fight for a strong, progressive agenda that represents the needs of working people, and not just the billionaire class, lobbyists and wealthy campaign contributors.
How do we do that?
It means supporting not just Joe Biden, but progressives who will fight for that agenda in Congress. It means donating, volunteering, posting on social media about your desire not just to beat Trump, but that your expectation for what a second term would look like for a Biden administration.
That is the work I will be doing over the course of the next several months, but it will take all of us to get it done.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders represents Vermont.
