Sanders warns Biden: address working-class fears or risk losing to demagogue
www.theguardian.com
Sanders warns Biden: address working-class anxieties or risk losing election to demagogue

In an interview with the Guardian from his home base in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders urged the Democratic president to inject more urgency into his bid for re-election. He said that unless the president was more direct in recognising the many crises faced by working-class families his Republican rival would win.

“We’ve got to see the White House move more aggressively on healthcare, on housing, on tax reform, on the high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “If we can get the president to move in that direction, he will win; if not, he’s going to lose.”

The US senator from Vermont added that he was in contact with the White House pressing that point. “We hope to make clear to the president and his team that they are not going to win this election unless they come up with a progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country.”

Sanders’ warning comes at a critical time in American politics. On Monday, Republicans in Iowa will gather for caucuses that mark the official start of the 2024 presidential election.

Biden faces no serious challenger in the Democratic primaries. But concern is mounting over how he would fare against Trump given a likely rematch between them in November.

  • BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca
    2663·
    10 months ago

    Every once in awhile I catch myself thinking about how different the world would have been if Bernie was president and it’s just so fucking sad.

    I get that all the other problems would still exist, but there would be a glimmer of hope to cling on to.

    • cmbabul@lemmy.world
      1652·
      10 months ago

      I voted for Bernie and he would have been great, I always find myself thinking about Gore winning more often. I have more respect for Bernie for sure but we’d have been in such a better place by 2016. Jesus, there’s a non-zero chance that the 9/11 warnings don’t get ignored and the US definitely doesn’t invade Iraq or Afghanistan. The housing bubble would probably still have burst in a bad way but I doubt it goes down the same way. Supreme Court wouldn’t be as full of neocons and zealots.

      • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
        56·
        10 months ago

        Not just that if Gore had won and 9-11 would have still happened we would have likely seen a push away from oil starting in the early 2000s. I think Gore could’ve turned that into an opportunity to say “to hell with these middle east authoritarians and their oil, we can do better for ourselves and better for the planet.”

        Unfortunately I was 6 when 9-11 happened so I didn’t have much say in these matters.

      • Candelestine@lemmy.worldEnglish
        491·
        10 months ago

        Yeah, this was always my big one too. I’m a green at heart, but I learned a brutal lesson then, that I’ll carry inside of me forever. A lesson that has only gotten reinforced by the slow march of modern fascism.

        Democracy requires dialogue, patience, empathy and compromise. The alternative is authoritarianism, and the unavoidable power struggles that come from too much centralized power in a world with ambitious humans. We need to remember that, and dialogue and compromise with our, in many ways younger-self progressives, instead of trying to corral them. We can do this. We are not too afraid.

        Give em hell Bernie.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
        17·
        10 months ago

        Yeah I think with gore we’d’ve had a good chance of being the world leader in switching to green energy right around when hummers got popular instead.

      • Rhaedas@kbin.social
        52·
        10 months ago

        It’s possible we’d be in a better situation now. Lots of obvious things like not tossing out known facts about terrorism efforts and having a climate change awareness leadership. There’s much that would still be the same, like the system of consumerism that is the core of much of our problems. One person in a limited power seat can’t fix that, I’m not sure anything can outside of failure of the system itself. But I do think we would have at least avoided that one historic turning point that revved back up the military drive of the US. Even GWB’s administration was looking into ways of reducing the military into smaller, more mobile parts until suddenly we went into revenge mode. Or useful crisis mode.

      • rayyy@lemmy.world
        1·
        10 months ago

        I always find myself thinking about Gore winning more often.

        We might be thinking about Biden winning his second term as Nazis take over the US in the future - Get your friends to vote

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      542·
      10 months ago

      I do wish he had been president, but I also wonder how much of his agenda he could have gotten past congress, even if Democrats were in charge. Most Democrats are, at best, about preserving the status quo and I hate having to vote for them just to stop the people who will make things even worse.

      • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
        201·
        10 months ago

        I voted for Bernie every chance I’ve had, but I genuinely doubt he could have achieved the current level of success much less something better.

        Without a Congress full of like-minded people, it would have been a struggle. I think we can have someone like Bernie for president one day, but it’s people being passionate and engaging with every vote and every election.

      • hark@lemmy.world
        4·
        10 months ago

        Undoubtedly they would’ve sabotaged Bernie every chance they got, just like the labour party sabotaged Corbyn in the UK. Both of those parties are glad they only had to sabotage during the elections.

    • Yewb@lemmy.world
      465·
      10 months ago

      Remember when debbie Wasserman shutlz stole the dnc nomination from bernie to give it to Hillary?

      That one rug pull gave donnie the win.

        • Facebones@reddthat.com
          1020·
          10 months ago

          With an election coming up, the Schrodingers Leftist dilemma is in full force, even on Lemmy -

          Where we’re simultaneously both powerful enough to be personally behind every Republican win of the past 20 years, and also so insignificant that we must be ridiculed and bullied at every turn to remind us that we have NO PLACE in their party they blame us for not backing.

          The best part is that most of the time people hit both sides of the coin in the same comment.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              11·
              10 months ago

              Centerists, or people who voted for Biden in the primaries tell progressives and leftists we’re minority viewpoints within the Democrat party. Implying that we have no business trying to influence the direction of the party. These same centerists also blame us when their garbage candidates don’t win in the general election and tell us things like “Biden was a good compromise” or “You got pretty much everything you wanted” despite neither of those things being true.

              Centerists got so comfortable winning elections on their own they forgot how to compromise and accuse anyone else trying to negotiate as “throwing a tantrum”.

        • cmbabul@lemmy.world
          412·
          10 months ago

          This is the most upsetting part, he fucking won, and we still have to live with the consequences of the GOP blatantly stealing the election

    • rayyy@lemmy.world
      82·
      10 months ago

      It wasn’t just Bernie who got the screws from Democrats. Henry Wallace got the same shaft from Democrats. On the other hand, Republicans don’t have populist fliers, they have fascists fliers who are promoted to the top.