Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has slammed the Democratic Party for running a “disastrous campaign” in the 2024 presidential election that he says sidelined the working class and the major issues they face in order to maintain a crumbling status quo.
In a scathing statement released on Wednesday, Sanders said that Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss lies squarely on a Democratic apparatus that refuses to acknowledge the actual issues driving voters — and that will also refuse to change for the better despite this year’s historic walloping at the polls, with the party slated to lose not only the White House, but also the Senate and potentially the House.
“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,” said Sanders. “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
Sanders pointed to major issues like the record-high wealth gap, the explosion in damaging technology like artificial intelligence, and the lack of universal health care or even guaranteed paid sick and family leave as issues basically completely sidelined by Democrats.
He also called out Democrats for their relentless support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and for shoveling billions in military assistance to Israeli forces as they slaughter Palestinians en masse.
Worst of all, he said, Democrats will not identify these as the real issues tanking support for their party. Rather, they will stick to unpopular, losing strategies and capitulate to the moneyed interests that have handed control to Donald Trump and his fascist coterie.
“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?” he asked.
“Probably not,” Sanders concluded, asking followers to “stay tuned.”
Indeed, in the aftermath of the election — which Trump won after having swept every swing state — liberal commentators breathlessly said that the Harris campaign was run “flawlessly.” Liberal CNN panelists even suggested that part of the loss can be attributed to Harris and the Democrats not being supportive enough of Israel, a patently absurd statement considering the Biden administration’s and Harris’s full-throated sponsorship of the genocide.
Many liberals suggested that Democrats’ embrace of far right policies and politicians this election didn’t go far enough, and that, in fact, Democrats should shift even further to the right to win support in the future.
There is no evidence supporting this theory. Rather, the opposite is true: Polls repeatedly showed that Harris would gain significant support from voters if she embraced more left-leaning policies like expanding Medicare, taxing the wealthy, raising the minimum wage and enforcing an arms embargo to Israel. Meanwhile, policies championed by progressives like Bernie Sanders, including universal health care, remain extremely popular.
Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.