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Opinion

Democrats must choose: The elites or the working class

They can’t represent both.

Supporters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigned outside a polling place in McAllen, Texas, on Nov. 5.Joel Martinez/Associated Press

The results of the 2024 election confirmed a reality that is too frequently denied by Democratic Party leaders and strategists: The American working class is angry — and for good reason.

They want to know why the very rich are getting much richer, and the CEOs of major corporations make almost 300 times more than their average employees, while weekly wages have remained stagnant over the last 50 years and 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

They want to know why corporate profits soar while companies shut down factories in America and move to low-wage countries.

They want to know why the food industry enjoys record-breaking profits, while they can’t afford their grocery bills.

They want to know why they can’t afford to go to a doctor or pay for their prescription drugs, and worry about going bankrupt if they end up in a hospital.

Donald Trump won because he tapped into that anger. Did he address any of these serious issues in a meaningful way? Absolutely not. But what he did do was to divert the festering anger in our country felt by a struggling working class into a politics that served his political goals.

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Trump’s “genius” is his ability to divide the working class so that tens of millions of Americans are talking about transgender athletes while ignoring the reality that Trump will be providing huge tax breaks for billionaires while he cuts programs for the elderly, the children, and the sick.

Trump’s fundamental explanation as to why the working class is struggling was that millions of illegal immigrants have invaded and “occupied” America, taken our jobs and benefits, and are eating our pets. That explanation is grossly racist, cruel, and fallacious. But it is an explanation.

And what do the Democrats have to say about the crises facing working families? What is their explanation as to why tens of millions of workers, in the richest country on earth, are struggling to put food on the table? How do they explain supporting billions of dollars in military aid to the right-wing extremist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has created an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Gaza?

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In my view, the Democrats lost this election because they ignored the justified anger of working-class America and became the defenders of a rigged economic and political system.

This election was largely about class and change and the Democrats, in both cases, were often on the wrong side. As Jimmy Williams Jr., the president of the Painters Union, said, “The Democratic Party did not make a positive case for why workers should vote for them, only that they were not Donald Trump. That’s not good enough anymore!”

I have been proud to work with President Biden on one of the most ambitious pro-worker agendas in modern history: the American Rescue Plan; historic investments in infrastructure and sustainable energy; rebuilding our manufacturing base; lowering the cost of prescription drugs; and forgiving student debt for 5 million Americans.

Biden promised to be the most pro-worker president since FDR, and he kept his word. But, unlike FDR, these achievements are almost never discussed within the context of a grossly unfair economy that continues to fail ordinary Americans.

Yes. In the past few years we have made some positive changes. We must acknowledge, however, that what we’ve done is nowhere near enough.

In his 1936 inauguration, four years after being first elected, FDR spoke not only of his administration’s achievements in combatting the Great Depression but also of the painful economic realities that millions of Americans were still experiencing.

Roosevelt’s words remain relevant today: “I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day. … I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.”

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In politics, you can’t fight something with nothing. Either you stand with the powerful oligarchy of our country, or you stand with the working class. You can’t represent both.

While Democrats will be in the minority in the new Congress, they still have the opportunity to bring forth a strong legislative agenda that addresses the needs of working families.

If Republicans choose to vote those bills down, the working class will learn quickly enough which party represents them and which party represents corporate greed.

In my view, here are some of the working-class priorities that Democrats must fight for:

▪ We must stop billionaires from buying elections.

▪ We must raise the $7.25 federal minimum wage to a living wage — at least $17 an hour.

▪ We must make it easier for workers to form unions and end illegal union busting.

▪ We must increase Social Security benefits and extend the solvency of Social Security.

▪ We must bring back defined benefit pension plans.

▪ We must guarantee health care to all as a human right.

▪ We must cut prescription drug prices in half.

▪ We must provide guaranteed paid family and medical leave.

▪ We must build 3 million units of low-income and affordable housing.

▪ We must make public colleges and universities tuition free, child care affordable for all, and pay teachers the salaries they deserve.

▪ We must adopt a progressive tax system that forces the very wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes.

▪ We must end the massive waste, fraud, and abuse that exists in the Pentagon.

The simple fact is: If you stand with working people, they will stand with you. In my view, if Democrats deliver on an agenda like this, they will have strong political success.

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Bernie Sanders is an Independent US senator from Vermont.