Nov 6, 2024
Bernie Goes SCORCHED EARTH On Democratic Party
Senator Bernie Sanders didn't hold back in ripping apart the Democratic Party after it's crushing loss to Donald Trump.
- 8 minutes
In the wake of last night's disastrous
presidential loss for Kamala Harris,
Bernie Sanders is taking harder shots
than he has ever taken against
the Democratic Party, and I welcome it.
I will allow it because it is necessary.
[00:00:15]
Now, in an open letter,
he slams the Democratic Party for focusing
on the wrong issues while simultaneously
ignoring the needs of the American people.
He writes as follows.
It should come as no great surprise
that a Democratic party, which has
[00:00:32]
abandoned working class people, would find
that the working class has abandoned them.
First it was white working class and now
it is Latino and black workers as well.
While the Democratic leadership
defends the status quo.
[00:00:48]
The American people are angry
and want change.
And they're right.
He continues today, while the rich
are doing phenomenally well, 60%
of Americans live paycheck to paycheck,
and we have more income and wealth
inequality than ever before.
[00:01:03]
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.
[00:01:19]
Many young people will have a worse
standard of living than their parents.
Now to my absolute favorite
excerpts from his open letter.
He writes today, despite spending far more
per capita than other countries, we remain
[00:01:37]
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
[00:01:53]
paid family and medical leave.
So the reason why I love that so much
is because he focuses
on how much we're spending
and how little we're getting in return.
And honestly, it makes me think
about all of the pretty little lies that
the American electorate is told about.
Oh, you know, Europeans have
a better quality of life for sure.
[00:02:11]
And they get a much better social safety
net, better social services.
That's definitely true.
But they pay such high taxes.
What do you think
the average American is doing?
We're paying real high taxes as well,
but we don't get nearly even close
[00:02:27]
to what Europeans get
for what they pay for their taxes.
Okay.
What does what do our taxes fund, Jake?
- War.
- War.
Okay.
Redistribution of wealth
from the bottom to the top.
My favorite argument from Israelis when
Americans complain about funding their
[00:02:42]
war is, why are you guys complaining?
You give us military aid, and we use
that money to buy American weapons.
Okay, that is the redistribution of wealth
from the American electorate, the American
taxpayers to a handful of executives
who work at these weapons manufacturers
[00:03:01]
and private defense contractors.
Okay, that's where the money's going.
It is a redistribution of wealth,
something that Republican politicians
complain about because they want you
to believe that it's money from the top,
trickling down to the bottom.
That's not what's happening here.
[00:03:17]
It's money from the bottom
that has been trickle not trickling up,
but just flooding over to the top.
People
who are already tremendously wealthy
and we don't have health insurance.
We don't have nearly the types of social
safety net programs that Europeans have.
[00:03:32]
He also writes today, despite strong
opposition from a majority of 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
[00:03:47]
the starvation of thousands of children.
I'm happy that Bernie seems to be
the only Democratic politician
who hasn't forgotten about what's
happening to the people in Gaza.
Yeah.
So first of all, Bernie,
it's good to have you back, brother.
Okay.
Credit to Rashida Tlaib,
of course, as well.
[00:04:05]
Right.
So, what happened to Bernie
for the last four years is, in my opinion,
he believed that Joe Biden was his friend,
and he believed that working with
the establishment would get it, all these
progressive policies that he believed in.
I said he was being naive,
and they weren't going to do any of that.
[00:04:24]
And on day one, we found out
they weren't going to do any of that
because they pulled his beloved
$15 minimum wage as their very first act.
Joe Biden said, take it out of the bill.
And they did.
Okay.
So
and then it led to a series of betrayals.
And so what?
He put on a happy face,
and I think that he really believed it.
[00:04:41]
And and I think that he believed that,
oh my God, we got some good things
passing the Inflation Reduction Act, etc..
And it wasn't all bad.
There were some decent things
that were passed.
But to me, the, you know, negotiating
drug prices is a perfect example because
there's tens of thousands of drugs.
And they said, oh, we're going
to negotiate prices on ten of them
[00:04:59]
eventually through to 2026.
And we'll start with one.
Now, when you do one out of tens
of thousands of drugs, that's not because
you're trying to lower drug prices.
That's because you're trying
to pretend to lower drug prices
while you actually protect higher
drug prices for 99% of drugs.
[00:05:19]
So I think that today, the reason
why the Bernie we know and love is back
and making these good,
tough points against the establishment
is because he realized, oh, no,
working with them didn't lead to anything
that they said would happen.
They promised this, that.
[00:05:34]
And the other thing they promised
they knew how to run a campaign.
They promised they'd do it
the next time around.
And what happened?
There is no next time around.
They didn't know how to run a campaign.
They never got the great majority of
that stuff passed and they never meant it.
So. But when you're when you play footsie
with the establishment and you buy into
[00:05:53]
their, you know, ideas that of gradualism,
and eventually we'll get there.
It's a trap.
They're not ever going to get there.
They don't intend to get there.
So so are you ready for the part
that you're going to love the most?
Yeah.
So he gets into money in politics, which
he's been talking about more and more
[00:06:11]
in press interviews and things like that,
but he certainly touched on it.
In this letter, he writes,
Will the big money interests
and well-funded consultants who control
the Democratic Party learn any real
lessons from this disastrous campaign?
Will they understand the pain
and political alienation that tens
[00:06:29]
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?
Probably not.
In the coming weeks and months, those
of us concerned about grassroots democracy
[00:06:48]
and economic justice need to have some
very serious political discussions.
Stay tuned.
Yeah, well, I'm staying too,
and I'm curious what he's going to do,
but I'm glad that he's at least
at least let go of this fantasy
that the establishment Democrats are going
to win, do something positive, etc.
[00:07:09]
And look, the reason, number one reason
why they don't talk about money
in politics is because it would offend
their colleagues.
And so if you watch
The Young Turks regularly, you've heard me
say that a lot of times, right?
And that's why even the squad went in.
We said, don't take corporate PAC money.
They didn't.
Terrific.
And we said, now go challenge your
colleagues on money and politics.
[00:07:26]
They're like, whoa, no way, no way.
Because then they would get mad at me
and that wouldn't be a good team player.
We didn't send you
to be a good team player.
We sent you to overturn their applecart.
That's the whole point of being
a progressive and fighting for the voters.
So if you went there
to be a Democratic colleague,
but God, we wasted our time, right?
[00:07:44]
So now, look, I don't know
where the squad stands.
I don't know if they're angry.
I don't know if they realize economic
populism is the right direction to go.
I don't know if they've learned anything,
but at least Bernie's back and he's
the the actual leader of the movement.
And so it doesn't mean
he's going to run again.
[00:08:00]
But what it does mean is he can energize
and unite people
and get back on the right track and not
kissing the ass of the establishment,
not hoping and praying
and pleading with the establishment
that they'll do the right thing,
take them out, take them on and challenge
them and say, yeah, when you take
[00:08:19]
that corporate money from drug companies
and you vote for higher drug prices,
you're not my colleague.
You're a corrupt politician
that's destroying our ability to win
and do positive things in the world.
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