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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jun/04/saying-trump-is-dangerous-is-not-enough-bernie-sanders-on-biden-billionaires-and-why-the-democrats-failed>
"‘I think what Trumpism is about, is an understanding that the system in
America is not working for working-class people,” says Bernie Sanders, sitting
in the
Guardian’s offices in London. “In a phoney, hypocritical way, Trump
has tapped into that. His quote-unquote ‘solutions’ will only make a bad
situation worse.”
In person, Sanders’ 83 years read differently than in photograph, perhaps
because of how conversational he is. His voice is magnetic – a Brooklyn accent
that feels both warm and tough. “But what I have been aware of, and I’ve talked
about it for years, is that in America, the very richest people are doing
phenomenally well, while 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck.”
Later, he will say the same thing to an audience in London – only with more
emphasis and passion. “Sixty per cent. Six-zero. Do you know what paycheck to
paycheck means?” It’s exhilarating to hear Sanders speak to a crowd: his zeal
is reflected back in their faces, his moral clarity is such a relief, set
against the cynicism and resignation of most of the Democratic party’s
opposition to Trump and his administration. Class war is as old as time, but
it’s a peculiarity of this age that you rarely hear a politician name it. “I
do,” he tells me. “There is a class war going on. The people on top are waging
that war.”
It’s a look at what could have been. Sanders ran, of course, to be the
Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, and again in 2020. The first time,
there was a real sense, in the US and abroad, that something incredible might
happen: that someone with “almost no name recognition,” he says, a senator from
the small state of Vermont, might successfully challenge Hillary Clinton, whom
the party had already anointed. We all know how that worked out. Was it the
greatest disappointment of his political life? “Well, you’re too busy to feel
things,” he says. “You’re just working very hard.”
What is absolutely unequivocal is his criticism of the Democrats. The party, he
thinks, lacks any real progressive promise. “What they say is, ‘The status quo
is working pretty good, and we will tinker around the edges’, and that is not a
message that resonates with working people”. He refuses to indulge in any
personal ill-will towards Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. The most he’ll voice is a
weary resignation about 2020, when his campaign “won the first three states,
primary states, in terms of popular votes. Then the Democratic establishment
made sure the other candidates dropped out, and they rallied around Joe Biden.
You know, that’s the world that we live in. We are taking on not just the
Republican leadership, we are taking on a Democratic establishment which is
tied to elements of corporate America.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
