Full text of statement:
"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. First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defend the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.
Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago.
Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a bad situation even worse.
Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee health care to all as a human right and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.
Today, despite strong opposition from a majority or Americans, we continue to spend billions funding the extremist Netanyahu government’s all out war against the Palestinian people which has led to the horrific humanitarian disaster of mass malnutrition and the starvation of thousands of children.
While 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 political power? Probably not.
In the coming weeks and months those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions.
Stay tuned."
Populism clearly wins elections, which is why the Democrats would shun a platform like this
Why win elections when you can lose elections and have your policies implemented anyway?
Every failure is an opportunity to fundraise.
Awww, they let the doggie off his leash!
no no they will not
In the coming weeks and months those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions.
Fucking tell them Bernie. Too many people are still in denial about the truth of that happened in this election. Hint: It’s not Americans hating women. It’s not Americans hating black people. It’s not Harris being handed an impossible situation. It’s not whatever excuse you came up with or heard (seriously why do people feel the need to make excuses for political candidates’ failure).
They always will fail, they serve the same donors and bourgeois powers as the republicans. That’s why they threw away their voterbase and catered with Liz Cheney. Marx and Lenin are vindicated by the passage of time. They were not clairvoyant, they just accurately analyzed the systems around them and saw what necessarily follows from their directions.
Everyone, get organized, read theory, learn self-defense and self-sufficiency. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. Defend yourselves and protect each other. I can provide an intro list to Marxism if anyone wants to read up on theory.
I’m fucking tuned Bernie.
We need a revolution, the democrats are a failure.
kinda doubt they care overmuch as theyre making money either way
There needs to be a purge within the Party. These corporate freaks and consultants and their pet politicians must be expelled from the Party. Democrats can’t allow them to call the shots anymore.
How do you purge 95% of a party and all of its power brokers and backers without just building a new party? It’s not like the capitalists came in and hijacked it, they were always one half of the American single-party state.
Vote in your down ballot primaries, and volunteer hard to get progressives in. People in those state/local offices often tend to move upwards in the party
Consider also running for office yourself https://runforsomething.net/
Why insist on continuing to spend all your focus and resources on participating in a system that is functioning exactly as it was designed to, and expecting different results?
People in those state/local offices often tend to move upwards in the party
name a time this has worked to get a progressive into a meaningfully high office (and they didn’t immediately capitulate and throw the working class under the bus in whole or in part)
No. The Democratic party deserves extinction. Can’t say who or what would replace them, but they’re dead.
Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.
-Vladimir Lenin
The Dems are failures, plain and simple, but there is a path forward that doesn’t involve them. It is the number 1 duty of leftists to get organized, and read theory. I can provide an intro list to Marxism if you want, but Blackshirts and Reds is an excellent primer. It helps us understand what fascism is, who it serves, where it comes from, and how we can banish it forever.
Part of the problem with this approach is that it assumes people aren’t already educated about what they want or their best interests.
Given the numbers now compared to 2020, I think it’s clear the American people just want fascism.
Being able to define and demonstrate what fascism is doesn’t help if most people are like “Cool yeah I want that”.
Most people do not want fascism, most people want a way out of a dying Capitalist hellscape. Some think Trump is the answer, which is wrong, of course, but it’s helpful to know that non-voters outnumber Trump Voters and Harris Voters. People want out and are tired of the games.
If most people didn’t want fascism, they didn’t care enough to do anything about it. The fascist vote won, I don’t know what other takeaway there is than that.
Do you want cool & slow fascism or hot & spicy? That was the choice.
Cool and slow 100%, easier to kill before it gets hot.
But I’d argue that even if there was literally any other non-fascist (leftist even) candidate in Harris’s place, the American voters would still choose Trump. They don’t want help, they want to hurt the people they think are supposed to be hurt more than them.
I am not sure they do want that. I mean even a fairly uneducated person would not see a classic run of the mill billionaire as a way out of capitalism. Perhaps it is just a defense reflex, people are known to favor authoritative figures during times of hardship and crisis.
Trump campaigned specifically catering to blue-collar workers with a right-wing populist narrative, the proletariat is squeezed and hopeless right now.
This feels like you are just assuming they want to be the “bad guys” It is more benifical to hear why they did what they did, and them we can talk and educate them out. Lots of this voting is based on fear, and we need to learn how to aswage there fear, or even meet there basic needs. What this ends up as is one side gave false promises they could solve this, the other said it was fine. Who would you chose if you could barily afford to put food on the table the one saying you will be fed or the one saying that there is no issue
There is definitely something fundamentally wrong with the American public consciousness. Were some voters who flipped this election motivated by fear and financial concerns? Maybe. But Trump’s support is not a new thing. He’s had close to half the country supporting him in each of the past 3 elections.
This is a population fueld by plain and simple hatred.
I recommend reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It’s one of many examples of America’s long-standing refusal to accept its fundamental flaws and its uncanny ability to deflect every social issue as someone else’s problem.
Sure but conservative/right supporters are like drones, they love uniting under one guy who does all the thinking for them and orders them around. They basically love a king.
On the other hand any group that gets invested in left leaning politics quickly splits into fractions or resists uniting with others mainly because they like to think for themselves and by thinking produce their own ideas. And ideas are like babies, especially if you spend a lot of time perfecting and nurturing it. It is hard to accept that others’ might be better or at least a synthesis is required.
So in my opinion, the left will always have a much harder time getting organised than the right.
I think it is short sighted and kind of dehumanizing to assume they are drones who are merely waning to unite under one person. we can look at the reasons they chose to do this, the material realities that caused them to vote that way. You can only sway people if you understand why they do something so you can convence them to solve it in a better way
Why do you believe right-wingers think the way they do? Is it genetic, or is it perhaps something else? Why do you see Left-wingers as “free thinkers” yet too individualist to show solidarity?
I think reading on Marxism would be an excellent step forward for you. Left-wingers splinter into factionalism because they don’t all want the same thing, or have disagreements on what should be a consistent stance. People’s ideas stem from their social relations and material conditions, it isn’t genetic.
I keep an introductory reading list I can provide, if you like.
Lol, Americans.
Wasn’t it the Republican party that needed to be destroyed last cycle in your allowed thought-hamster wheel? I wonder what it’ll be next cycle.
Maybe time to expand your solutions beyond that?
That’s like reforming the Nazi party, by the time you’ve fixed the Democratic party you’ll have changed everything about it.
Those are the democratic party elite. We can no more remove them than remove one’s own head.
Bernie is the modern day version of Bernstein. Bernie’s emphasis on gradual reform and cooperation with the bourgeoisie is essentially an abandonment of the fight for socialism. Much like Bernstein did in hist time, Bernie prioritizes short-term gains for workers within the capitalist system instead of striving for its overthrow. He built a country wide movement that inspired millions of people, and then he made it all about the election. Once he lost the whole movement just fizzled overnight.
Oh fuck right off Bernie. You solidified yourself as one of their satellites when you went down without a fight after super tuesday 2020. I remember you standing side by side with them lying to us about Gaza just fucking weeks ago. Retire. All the good that could come out of you is tapped.
They didn’t learn when Hillary did it, they squeaked by with Biden because nobody could stomach another 4 years of orange man, and they shit the bed in entirely the same way with Harris. They’ll keep the same quislings in control, propping up the Republican monarchists and throw a bunch more elections to make sure there’s a supermajority the next go around to get some real work done for the fascists. This is the way.
Tbh, to me, this reads like “fuck you assholes. I’m founding a new political party right the fuck now, because you clearly cannot be bothered to pay the fuck attention to people’s actual fucking lives”. I hope I’m right. The DNC deserves to fully collapse for this result. It’s utterly damning.
The Green Party already exists as a Soc Dem party, I doubt Bernie alone can destabilize the DNC by jumping to the Greens or launching a new party. PSL is in a better position to attack the DNC’s foundations IMO.
I think Bernie is too old to have a massive impact, even by starting a new party. Hes 83 now, 4 years older than the average life expectancy. I don’t think there would be much faith in any new movement he tries to push, unless he can funnel all of his popularity into a younger candidate. A Bernie II if you will
Trying to run off of personality and not off of proper theory and practice seems to be the key to a fumbling movement with splitting.
I think that if he can form a party out of progressive democrats in congress or convince several progressive democrats in congress to defect to an established third party he’ll have a chance. That’s basically how the republicans formed from the whigs. The biggest problem third parties have right now is no faith. Dems currently have extremely low faith, and so if a new party starts campaigning from the democrats’ former members I might actually consider voting for them.
I shut my mouth for Hillary, I shut my mouth for Biden, and I shut my mouth for Kamala. Each time I tried to be enthusiastic for the opportunity to engage in anti fascism by doing something as easy and low risk as voting. But they kept heading rightwards.
I maintain that Biden was way better than I’d expected, but still I’m tired of this. I want someone who will campaign like Bernie. I want someone who will fight for me as a worker and as a trans woman and as an environmentalist who’s young enough for environmental concerns to be self preservation. And I want someone who will actually target the right wing violence I’m afraid of.
The problem is that because voting is easy and low risk, it doesn’t actually go far enough to get change. The dems are not an anti-fascist party. Capitalism is in constant decay, this decay leads to sharpening contradictions and fascism is deployed to protect Capitalist interests. Bernie would not end Capitalism, he may only slow it’s rate of descent, not stop it or reverse it. A great work on fascism is Blackshirts and Reds. I can provide a longer Marxism intro reading list if you’d like, but Blackshirts is a great start.
I understand your fear, but we can know the enemy, why it rises in strength, and can banish it forever.
Ok, but are you building popular support for this elsewhere? What I proposed is mutually palatable to a huge portion of Americans. What you proposed doesn’t have the base yet, much less if you’re asking us to risk everything for it.
Yes. Not only are there several proper Marxist orgs like The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization gaining in membership every day (especially in the context of the failures of the Democrats), Social Democrat organizations like the DSA have powerful Marxist caucuses like Red Star Caucus.
I know what I propose isn’t easy, but I also know it’s doable, and there are good people out there working to make it happen.
Unfortunately, I don’t think any of this bothers them. As long as politics is controlled by money, this is the ultimate destination for any major political party.
If Bernie Sanders and Jon Stewart run in 2028, we might have a chance to install people that would actually attempt to remove blatant bribery from politics. Otherwise, this is it.
Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.
-Vladimir Lenin
Bernie and Jon Stewart will be too old by then. More than that, ceding defeat without fighting to begin with is the height of foolishness. It is the number 1 duty of leftists to get organized, and read theory. I can provide an intro list to Marxism if you want, but Blackshirts and Reds is an excellent primer. It helps us understand what fascism is, who it serves, where it comes from, and how we can banish it forever.
Jon Stewart is not that old. He’s only 61.
That’s still above retirement age, he shouldn’t have to run, nor am I in the mindset that he would be enough to course correct.
Obviously he shouldn’t have to run, but he’s not remotely too old. He’s sharp, has experience dealing with the political system (and succeeding), is extremely knowledgeable and insightful about the state of society, etc.
He doesn’t want to be a politician, though, so it’s a moot point.
Bernie’s gonna be in his 90s by then. He won’t run and I won’t blame him.
Dude litterally spent his entire life trying to help us. We consistently turned him down. He did all he could, the blame is not with him.
Where was this months ago!?!?
He was too busy endorsing Harris…
As he does - support the best option that has a realistic chance of happening even if that’s just because it’s a lesser evil. He did it with Hillary too even after the DNC stabbed him in the back, and for the same reason: he saw the disastrous potential of a Trump presidency.
That ship has sailed and sunk, so now it’s time for aggressive introspection in the hopes that we can make a better ship next time that actually does its job.
…assuming there’s a next time.
And Bernie endorsing whatever ghoul the Democratic party chooses did not work in 2016, worked in 2020 mostly because of Covid, and again did not work in 2024.
He really has no spine to keep following wathever he is told to do by the party. I guess you don’t get that close to power as a Democrat if you actually want to fight for a better future. You can only say that you want to and then stop short of actually doing anything.
I like you. You’re good with words.
Yeah - problem being, I’m not convinced there WILL be a next time - definitely in the foreseeable future, or perhaps ever again in the context of America as it exists today.
you seem to be underestemating the value to the owning class to let the working class vent once every four years, while making no tangable effect. there is no real reason to assume voting is going to end
Where the fuck was this version of Sanders for the last 8 fucking years.
Present and speaking similarly.
Was gonna say. Standing up for folks, yelling at the same empty room he’s been yelling at for 40 years. Dude is nothing if not consistent. If anything Bernie has moved to the right in the last 4 decades, and he’s still the left most politician we have
Honestly kudos to the man for standing up for his beliefs in the face of overwhelming American stupidity for this long. I’d have definitely folded.
There’s C-Span videos online of him doing interviews before he became a US senator, and it’s interesting how the problems then are still relatable now. We’ve gotten better at kicking cans down roads and blaming each other instead of tackling the issues head on.
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Too true. Listening to Sanders from the 80s is the same as listening to him today. It’s shocking how little his views and rhetoric have changed while being absolutely correct from the beginning.
Endorsing every move the dems made.
Haven’t been paying attention, eh?
You certainly haven’t, between defending Israel and actively supporting Biden’s agenda, Sanders hasn’t expressed any thoughts left of center in a while.
you have to work within your environment. you can’t just go full leftist in the backwoods redneck country that is the USA and expect to get anywhere. making concessions is necessary. but people fail to understand the nuance required to play the game. the second you’re an “outsider” you’ll be cast aside by the prevailing parties - exactly what happened to Sanders when he assumed most people were with him. social media has created echo chambers that reflect a mirage of what we want to see, not what’s actually there.
As a communist in a redneck area, nearly the entirety of the redneck South are leftists. They don’t think they are. They need some social theory that is happening slowly. But their core values are ripped straight from the manifesto, right down to beating their bosses ass for pulling some dumb shit.
You genuinely don’t need to make concessions. You need to be honest, seem honest, and genuinely recognize the problems people have, not pretend they don’t exist. Every single person I’ve talked to, and I do mean Trump supporting, flag bearing, lifted truck little shits, supports Medicare for all. They fully support free college and trade school. Hell a decent number support ubi, even for minorities. They don’t support the words, the labels for those policies, because of propaganda and dem failures, but they fully support the policies if you explain them wholly without buzzwords. Hell I’ve helped convert a few to union men.
And I’m not lucky or in an abnormal area… Polls have repeated showed left wing policies( or at least as left wing as Sanders) are incredibly, ridiculously popular. Medicare for all, when you don’t use that term, gets 70-80% approval in polls depending on how well it’s explained in said poll.
You, like all neoliberal excuses, have no idea what the working class of America is like, which is amazing because statistically you’re a part of it.
You genuinely don’t need to make concessions.
So backwoods white Christian nationalists are okay with abortion? Gay marriage? Women’s rights? Interracial marriage? Muslims Immigrants? Mexican immigrants? People not having a full grasp of the English language?
You, like all neoliberal excuses, have no idea what the working class of America is like, which is amazing because statistically you’re a part of it.
You’re attacking a straw man brother. You have no idea who I am, where I came from or what experiences I have. You’ve also painted a picture that doesn’t match reality based on your own experience. The world isn’t as shallow as your singular perspective nor is it black or white.
backwoods white Christian nationalists
These people do not exist in any numbers that matter. Get out of your echo chamber.
abortion? Gay marriage? Women’s rights? Interracial marriage? Muslims Immigrants? Mexican immigrants? People not having a full grasp of the English language
This is the social aspect I was referring to, and for the record, most don’t care either way. Because none of that effects them. They don’t have the time or energy to care. Those are problems for rich people.
