Trump Stole Bernie’s Working-Class Story. Dems Should Steal It Back.

https://newrepublic.com/article/188184/bernie-winning-back-working-class

32 comments

  1. Centrists are too recalcitrant and stubborn for this to ever happen.

    Centrism is dead, but iys gonna kill everything in its wake.

  2. There is nothing to steal back anymore, folks. If anyone thinks that the Christian Nationalists are ever going to cede power again, you’re sorely mistaken. What starts in January is the end of American Democracy. We are shifting to a plutocracy who will just happen to have the most modern, technologically advanced military at their disposal and unlimited funds to force us into their vision of the future.

    Exercise your rights while you still can. Have a backup plan. Get with like minded family and friends and be prepared for what is to come. It’s not going to be pretty.

  3. I would be cautious lifting up Bernie so much, if Bernie ever had this coalition, they certainly never showed up for him to vote that way, neither in 16 or 20 primaries.

    There is no obvious evidence the working class is being driven by left-wing policies.

  5. Ah yes, Trump’s working class story of giving tax breaks to the rich and raising prices on everything through mass deportation and tariffs.

    How are these journalists so fucking stupid?

  6. Its a “story” with Trump. He is absolutely full of shit. Bernie means it.

  7. That will be very easy after four years of Trump failing to deliver on his promises. Unfortunately, there is quite a big risk that by then everything is so much rigged that no Democrat will ever win the presidency again.

  8. I almost feel like the only person who can do that with credibility might be AOC. But I also have severe doubts that the US will vote a female president into office any time soon.

  9. One thing I have seen repeatedly is the right wing (successfully) attacking Bernie as a “sell out” because he was successful.

    Democrats need to start there. When Dems succeed they want to bring everyone up.

    When Republicans succeed they pass laws that make it harder to succeed.

  11. Trump is not running a working class campaign. He’s running the most successful identity politics campaign in history – and it just so happens to be successful with white working class people.

  12. Yes. Exactly!! A simple populist left-wing message can win with the right messenger. Everyone is way overthinking this. A new simple message and movement + an every man messenger = sweeping leftist victories = badly needed institutional reforms (term limits, dark money, etc.)

  13. The conundrum for Democrats is that government social programs are popular but no one wants to pay more in taxes to pay for them. The truth is in order to get bold plans funded responsibly everyone will need to pay some more in tax. However, on average the lower your income the less you’ll pay as a proportion of what you get in benefits. Also Republicans have always done well at messaging to folks that they are being ripped off as tax payers if someone else gets a program they don’t. It’s not fair and because they can’t get it they don’t want anyone to have it.

  15. In 2016, I worked on Bernie’s campaign, convinced that the Democratic Party needed to embrace a progressive economic populism to counter Trumpian populism. I believed our democratic institutions would make it difficult for fascism or socialism to take root. I understood the appeal of Trump’s ideas about the economy; it was, indeed, rigged—rigged for those in the top 1 percent. The primary was brutal. Hillary’s campaign accused us of being sexist and racist for disagreeing with Hillary’s pro-corporate and pro-war positions, and the media labeled us “Bernie Bros.” We were silenced. But we had a coalition of working-class people—Black, Latino, and white—who were energized. Yet pompous Democratic consultants believed the only way to win was to capture elusive suburban Republican men and women repulsed by Trump’s rhetoric, assuming working class Black and Latino men would vote Democratic regardless of Hillary’s platform. We believed the DNC suppressed our votes (and voice), handing the nomination to Wall Street Hillary, who then ran on an identity politics platform and unsurprisingly lost. I’m still bitter about it to this day. And after Trump captured the coalition we had in our grasp in 2016, I’m even more bitter. The Democrats ran another identity-politics-driven campaign, led by out of touch consultants beholden to giant corporations and Wall Street, now chasing the elusive Liz Cheney vote. Routed. Now, members of the press who once dismissed us as “Bernie Bros” are saying he was right all along. It’s maddening. This was the closest I’ve ever come to voting Republican. Ethically, I couldn’t bring myself to do it, but I could sense which way the tide was turning.

  16. Im so fucking happy what ive been saying for a week is an actual news story

    Maybe there is hope

  17. Literally what Bernie has been saying 8-9 years. But don’t steal the story. Adopt Bernie’s ethics and actions towards the people. It’s time to shut up or put up when you can’t even win against…this.

  18. Trump taped into rage and fear, regardless of who or what people are bad /scared of.

    It just so happens that it’s the working class that feels under attack….sadly many just placed their attacker’s in charge.

  19. If only Hillary had chosen Bernie as his VP pick— this election, the world and the US would have been entirely different right now!

  20. Trump: The immigrants are ruining America.

    Bernie: No war but the class war.

  21. Nah Trump just spouted shit and half the media didn’t bother to check him. Shit is weird that this saffron saphead can win over so many voters with such weak talking points. All it takes it about 5 minutes of research.

  22. Look. Until Trump and his ilk are actually held accountable for their actions there is no way back.

  23. the democratic party hates bernie almost as much as they hate trump

  24. Did he though? Trumps message was “other poor people are taking shit from you” (ie immigrants) and also “new identities are destroying the true American identity” (ie trans people, immigrants, muslims).

    Everyone one knows Bernie’s message.. “the top 1% of the top 10%” (ie rich people)…

    They are both populist messages but with totally different enemy groups and totally different ideas about how to fix it

  26. They should find someone a few centuries younger than Bernie to idolize so the party can grow and not stagnate and die

  27. Why blame the DNC for silencing your vote when you can blame the guy that beat the candidate they made you vote for? This source makes breitbert look like a fair publication to cite – they didn’t even make it two sentences without injecting their opinion

  28. If there is a possible silver lining to this horrific timeline, it’s that Bernie Sanders has been proven right time and time and time again.

    What a wasted opportunity in 2016.

  29. Anyone who bought dumpy cares about their socioeconomic status is a gullible buffoon.

  30. I don’t give a fuck whose story it is. Someone should actually do something for the working-class.

  31. Bernie received 229,904 votes this election.
    Harris received 235,791 votes in Vermont this election.

    Sounds like Sanders, in the spirit of AOC, should ask to talk to the Harris-Malloy voters. Maybe the Sanders line is less appealing than people think.

  32. Trump won in 2016 by running the Sanders Campaign (…well, the campaign if Sanders was a racist and suffering from a concussion but still) vs. a Neoliberal Campaign. Beats Hillary.

    Biden’s Neoliberal adjacent barely beats Trump in 2020 with an assist from a goddamn ***plague***. And still *almost loses*.

    2024: Trump runs the same campaign as 2016, just angrier and more racist, vs. Kamala running a Neoliberal-lite campaign. Trump beats Kamala so badly the result is a historic defeat for the Dem. candidate.

    In basically every down ballot race the candidate running the Bernie Sanders-esque anti-Neoliberal campaign beats anyone running a Neoliberal campaign with very few exceptions.

    HMM. HM. *HMMMMMMMMM.*

    I dunno; I think there might be something here. Anyone here have a “*Pattern Recognition*” quirk?

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